THE STATUS OF HOY'S SHREW IN WISCONSIN. 



Microsorex hoyi (Baird). 



By Henry L. Ward. 



In 1857 Baird 1 described this species from two specimens 

 taken at Racine, Wis. .When in 1895 Merriam 2 reviewed Sorex 

 he had but 23 specimens of this species for examination and was 

 able to state the range as "from British Columbia on the west 

 almost to Lebrador "on the east." The type specimens from 

 Racine, Wis., marked the southern limit of the species as then 

 known, and are the only specimens from Wisconsin recorded by 

 Merriam. 



For many years the Public Museum has exhibited a mounted 

 shrew labeled as this species, collected by T. Kumlien in Bussey- 

 ville, Wis., January 30th, 1884, and by him sold to the Museum 

 on October 21st, 1884. This has acquired a place in the litera- 

 ture of hoyi due to Jackson's 3 citation of it, which is qualified by 

 the statement: "this specimen, a female, bears the label hoyi, 

 but I have been unable to examine it critically, and, being 

 mounted with the skull inside, the species has not been positively 

 determined by the author." 



In March of this year Dr. Charles B. Corey, while examining 

 the Museum's mammals for data for his forthcoming work on 

 the mammals of Illinois and Wisconsin, requested that an exam- 

 ination of the teeth of this specimen be made in order to set at 

 rest its specific identity. Accordingly I caused its lips to be 

 softened so that the teeth were visible, and an examination by 

 Dr. Corey and myself showed the skull to be that of a personatus, 



1) Baira, Spencer P. General Report on North American Mammals, 

 pp. 32-33 (1857). , _. . .. 



2) Merriam, C. Hart. Revision of the American Shrews of the 

 e-enus Sorrx. North American Fauna, No. 10, p. 90 (Dec. 1895). 



3) Jackson, Hartley H. T. A Preliminary List of Wisconsin Mam- 

 mals. Bull. Wis. Nat'l Hist. Soc'y, Vol. 6, Nos. 1 and 2 (1908). 



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