Vol. XXVI, pp. 113-114 May 3, 1913 



PROCEEDINGS 



of Tin: 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



A NEW SHREW FROM BALTISTAN. 



BY GERRIT S. MILLER, JR. 



[By permission of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.] 



Four specimens of a pale gray shrew of the genus Crocidura 

 collected by Dr. W. L. Abbott in Baltistan represent a species 

 distinct from those previously described. The animal may be 

 known as 



Crocidura pergrisea sp. nov. 



Type.— Adult female (skin and skull), No. 175918, U. S. National 

 Museum. Collected at Skoro Loomba, Shigar, Baltistan (altitude 9500 

 feet), October 10, 1912, by Dr. W. L. Abbott. Original number 8030. 



Diagnosis. — Size and proportions about as in Crocidura attenuata as 

 described and figured by Milne-Edwards,* but color a very pale gray, 

 skull smaller than in the Cbinese animal (greatest length 18.8-19.0 instead 

 of 21 mm.) and crown area of first unicuspid fully equal totbat of second 

 and third combined. 



Color. — Hairs everywhere blackish-slate from base to within about 1.5 

 mm. of tips, this dark area followed by white with a faint creamy tinge, 

 and this in turn on dorsal surface by the hair-brown tips. The general 

 effect on underparts is a creamy white with irregular slaty clouding, that 

 on upperparts pallid neutral-gray faintly washed with hair-brown. Feet 

 and tail whitish, the tail with a dusky area on dorsal surface at tip but 

 not including pencil. 



Skull and teeth. — Viewed from above or below the skull resembles that 

 of the common Crocidura pullata of Kashmir except that the braincase 

 is narrower. In lateral aspect it is conspicuously lower throughout, and 

 in two of the three skulls there is a slight but evident concavity in the 

 interorbital region. 



Teeth not obviously different from those of C. pullata, the small uni- 

 cuspids subequal, with the first inclining to be slightly the larger, the 

 crown area of the two small teeth together not greater than that of the 

 large anterior unicuspid. 



* Rech. Hist. Nat. Mamm., vol. 1, p. 263, pi. 3SB, fig. 1 ; pi. 3'JA. fig. 2. 



27— Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., Vol. XXVI. 1913. (113) 



