FAUNA OF THE ALEUTIAN ISLANDS AND ALASKA PENINSULA 263 



Sorex tundrensis: Tundra Saddle-backed Shrew 



This well-marked shrew is represented by specimens from 

 Nushagak, Kakwok, Lake Weelooluk, and Lake Aleknagik. Robert 

 T. Orr (1939, p. 251) records a more-recent specimen taken by 

 Dallas Hanna in 1937 at Wide Bay, which is the farthest west 

 that this animal has been recorded. Lack of other specimens 

 suggests a limited distribution farther west on the peninsula. 



Sorex hydrodromus: Unalaska Saddle-backed Shrew 



In view of the uncertainties concerning the Unalaska saddle- 

 backed shrew (the only known specimen is in Russia), every 

 effort was made to obtain specimens, but without success. Our 

 stops at Unalaska were necessarily brief, and no shrews of any 

 kind were found. 



In 1911, Wetmore was told by the natives that shrews were 

 present on Unalaska Island, but no specimens were taken. 



Donald Stevenson, who spent 5 years in the Aleutians from 

 1920 to 1925, had reports of shrews on Unalaska, but he got no 

 specimens. 



Therefore, the original specimen and description are all we have 

 on this species. In 1937, E. Raymond Hall had an opportunity to 

 examine the original specimen in the Zoological Institute of the 

 Academy of Sciences in Leningrad. He has kindly furnished a 

 copy of his notes, which are here quoted in full. 



ADDITIONAL EVIDENCE INDICATING THAT 

 SOREX HYDRODROMUS DOBSON IS A MEMBER OF THE SOREX 



ARCTICUS GROUP OF SHREWS 



Sorex hydrodromus Dobson from Unalaska Island, Aleutian Islands, 

 Alaska, was diagnosed in the original description (Annals and Mag. Nat. 

 Hist., sei\ 6; vol. 4 p. 373, November 1889) as resembling Sorex vulgaris of 

 the Old World in dental characters but resembling Neosorex in possessing 

 swimming fringes on the digits. Jackson, who was unable to examine the 

 type specimen or topotypes, in his "A Taxonomic review of the American 

 long-tailed shrews" (N. Amer. Fauna No. 51, July, 1928) tentatively assigned 

 the species to the Sorex arcticus group, with the suggestion that S. hydro- 

 dromus might be the same as Sorex tundrensis or at most subspecifically 

 distinct. 



Bearing in mind the uncertainty as to the relationships of this shrew, 

 I was glad to take advantage of the opportunity which Prof. B. Vinogradov 

 and his assistant, Mr. A. J. Argyropulo, afforded me to study the type speci- 

 men when I visited the Zoological Institute of the Academy of Sciences in 

 Leningrad in August 1937. 



The assumed type is an immature female, no. 2389, Zoological Museum of 

 the Academy of Sciences of Leningrad, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, 

 collected by I. G. Vosnesensky at Unalaska, Aleutian Islands, Alaska, some 



