A EEVISION^ OF THE AMERICAN MOLES. 



By J^'rederick W. True, 



Curutur, Department of Mammals. 



The existence of moles in Kortli America was known to naturalists 

 nt least as early as the middle of the eighteenth century. Under date 

 of October 11', 1748, Kalm meutions seeing burrows of a mole on the 

 banks of the Schuylkill River at Philadelphia. He remarks on the char- 

 acteristics of an individual kept in captivity, but it is not clear from his 

 account at what time it came under his observation, though pr<)l)ablv 

 not long after the date cited above.^ 



The first explicit mention of specimens which I find is tliat of Bar- 

 rington in the Philosophical Transactions in 177l'.- 



Barrington wrote to the secretary of the Royal Societv of London 

 under date of May 15, 1771, as follows : " ' 



I send herewith a mole from Korth America, which Mr. Kuckahn (who hath before 

 preseute.l several birds and insects to the Society) desires they will do him the honour 

 to place in their Museum. 



From the descrii)tion which follows, it appears probable tliat the 

 specimen (which included part of the skull) was our common mole 

 Sccdops aquatic us. ' 



There is a reference to specimens of almost the same date in Bod- 

 dairt's translation of Linnanis's Systema Natune in 1772.^ In a footnote 

 under the heading of 8ore.t- crista fu.s, he remarks : 



This very rare species makes a connection between the mole and shrew It is 

 more like a mole than a shrew. I have seen the same in the celebrated cabinet of 

 Mr. ^ an der Meulen in Amsterdam. 



Liiiuitus may have found specimens of American moles in the 

 Swedish museums to which he had access, though it is improbable; if 

 uot, he must have received correct descriptions or specimens froai 

 Kalm, who traveled in America for him and was in correspondence 

 with him. Linna'us diagnoses the species correctly, which he could 



'Kalm's Travels, Forster's English Trans., I, 1770, p. 190. Th7species^wa7p^^- 

 bly Scalops aquaticus, but Forster believed that it was Cond>/lum. 



-Account of a Mole from North America: In a letter to Dr. Maty, Sec. R. S., from 

 the Hon. Daines Barrington, F. K. S., Phil. Trans., LXI, pt. 1, p. 292. 



"Boddaert, Linn. Nat., 1, 1772, p. .51. 



Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol. XIX— No. 1101. 

 Proc. N. M. vol, xix 1 



