FAUNA AMERICANA. 29 



Species. 



4. Sorex brevicmidus, Say. Long's Exped. vol. 

 i. p. 164. 



Char. Essent. Blackish plumbeous above; be- 

 neath rather lighter ; teeth blackish ; tail short, 

 robust. 



Dimensions. From the tip of the nose to the 

 root of the tail, three inches five-eighths ; length 

 of the tail, one inch. 



Description. Above, blackish plumbeous, when 

 viewed from before; silvery plumbeous when view- 

 ed from behind; fur dense, rather long; beneath 

 rather paler; head large ; eyes very minute; ears 

 white, entirely concealed beneath the fur; aper- 

 ture very large, with two distinct semiseptte, 

 which are sparsely hairy at tip ; snout short, with 

 a slightly impressed abbreviated line above ; nose 

 livid brown, emarginate; mouth margined with 

 whitish and sparse hairs ; teeth piceous, black at 

 tip, thirty in all, (as in the S. constrictus :) inci- 

 sors of the upper jaw compressed laterally and 

 hooked, white and distinct at base, black and ap- 

 proximate at tip, where they are rather pointed; 

 then follow five minute false molars, black at top, 

 crowns with two tubercles, when viewed with the 

 glass, one external the other internal ; the most 

 posterior is without black at tip, or tubercles; 

 true molars three in number, proportionally large, 

 furnished each with four sharp tubercles, and as 



