216 BULLETIN OF THE 



some remarkable peculiarities of the skull. While it has no satisfactory 

 external characters by which to designate it," " the skull is so entirely differ- 

 ent from all others " he had seen, he says, as " almost to make a distinct sub- 

 genus." This difference consists in its being much narrower than in other 

 short-tailed shrews, ami in the greatest interorbital constriction being 

 placed a little in front of the middle, instead of behind it, as in the others, 

 and in its being greater in amount. In regard to this specimen, I need 

 only add that, in respect to its skull, and in this character alone,* whether 

 really a distinct species or an abnormal individual variation, it still remains 

 unique, no other like it having yet become known to naturalists. 



In continuing this preliminary revision of the Blarincc, we find that ten 

 species of this strictly American genus f of the short-tailed shrews have been 

 described, all from the United States, three of which were first character- 

 ized by Professor Baird in his North American Mammals. Seven are 

 l-ecognized in this work as valid ; two are given as doubtful or unidenti- 

 fied, and one is doubtfully referred to one of the others. These are ar- 

 ranged in two sections, according to the number of premolars; section 

 "A" having five, and section "B" four. Their dental formula? are as 

 follows : — 



2 5 — 5 4 — 4 _ 2 4 — 4,4 — 4 



Section A, - + ---, + 3 _-^ = 32 ; section B, - -f ^-—^ -\- ^—^ = 30. 



A lengthy diagnosis is given of each section, but no other essential differ- 

 ences are pointed out, the distinctions in respect to color, &c., being, as is 

 evident from the descriptions of the species that follow, inconstant and 

 invalid. In section B the first premolar is said to be slightly larger than the 

 second, and in section A to be smaller than the second. But in the de- 



* That is, judging from Professor Baird's description; but from the figures of its 

 skull (PI. XXX, Fig. 7), it seems to have had an imperfect or abnormal dentition, the 

 number of visible premolars being three instead of four, in the upper jaw, and one 

 instead of two in the lower, with a nuked space between them and the incisors. It is 

 possible, however, that the first premolar in each jaw had become accidentally lost 

 before the skull passed into the hands of the artist, 

 t Sorex brevicaudus Say, Long's Exped., I. I s :::;. 164. 

 " ji'imis S \ v, [bid., 163. 



" talpoides Gappkk, Zool. Journ., V, 1830, 208, PI. VIII. 

 " carolinensis Bachmajt, Journ. Phil. Acad. Nat. So., VN, 1837, 366, PI. 



XXIII, Fig. 1. 

 " cinerevs Ibid., 373, PI. XXIII, 1 



Dekayi Ibid., 377, PI. XXIII, 1' • I. 

 '• ex II a' ani, Di vi k.nov, Mag. de Zool., 1842, 40, PI. Ill, Fig. 6. 



Blarina angitsticeps Baird, X. Am. Mam., LS57, 47. 

 " exilipes Ibid., 61. 

 " DcrUmdieri Ibid., 53. 



