Vol. XXII, pp. 51-54 April 17, 1909 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



THE STATUS OF SOREX MERRIAMI, WITH DESCRIP- 

 TION OF AN ALLIED NEW SPECIES FROM UTAH. 



BY WILFRED H. OSGOOD. 



Some twenty-five years ago, Maj. Chas. E. Bendire collected 

 a small shrew near Fort Custer, Montana. The specimen, pre- 

 served in alcohol, subsequently passed into the hands of Dr. 

 G. E. Dobson, who cited it in 1890 as the type of his Sorex 

 merriami. Owing to a chain of circumstances, suspicion then 

 arose that Dr. Dobson had accidentally associated a skull of 

 some Old World shrew with the alcoholic specimen from Mon- 

 tana, and the name merriami, though retained in most syste- 

 matic works, has since been somewhat in abeyance. The case 

 was stated by Dr. Merriam, in 1895, as follows :* 



" The type and only known specimen of this remarkable shrew 

 was presented to me by Maj. Charles E. Bendire, who collected 

 it at the post garden, on the Little Big Horn River, about a 

 mile and a half above Fort Custer, Mont., December 26, 1884. 

 I sent it, with all my other shrews, to Dr. George E. Dobson, 

 who was then engaged on a monographic revision of the Soricidse. 

 Unfortunately, owing to Dr. Dobson's continued ill health, all 

 that has ever been published of this monograph is a fasciculus 

 of plates, showing the jaws and teeth of certain species, with a 

 page of explanation facing each plate. (Monog. Insectivora, 

 Part III, fasc. 1, May, 1890.) The present species is named 

 and its peculiar dentition shown in PL XXIII, fig. 6, of this 

 work. But the remarkable shape of the palate and peculiarities 

 of the skull as a whole are not shown. The skull was removed 

 from the alcoholic specimen by Dr. Dobson, and I have some- 

 times wondered whether by any possible accident it could have 

 been transposed with that of some Asiatic species, it is so very 



* North American Fauna, No. 10. pp. SS-sy, Dec. 31, 1895. 



8— Proc. Biol. Soc, Wash., XXII, 1909. (51) 



