NO. 1101. PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



American forms seems to have filially disappeared from the litera- 

 ture.^ 



The history of the classification of the Insectivora has been ably 

 expounded by Dr. Gill,' and it is unnecessary for me in this connection 

 to treat of it in detail. I shall content myself with running over the 

 principal phases of the matter as relates to the Talpidfc, beginniny- at 

 a somewhat earlier date than Dr. Gill has done, and including some 

 systems which ho has omitted. 



In LiniiiTeus' time and for a half century afterwards the genera of 

 animals were grouped together in orders without intermediate segrega- 

 tion as families. The genera were, however, in many cases practically 

 equivalent in value to family divisions as employed at the jn^esent 

 day. In 1813 Fischer proposed a classification of mammals, based on 

 the structure of the feet, into which family divisions as now used were 

 introduced. He divides mammals into QuadrvjH'da and Cetacea (or 

 A2)oda), and the former again into Fis-sipeda and Plcctopoda. The Fls- 

 sipeda are again divided into Ungnieulata and Ungulata. The Vngui- 

 cuhita comprises five orders, one of which, the PlantUjrada., includes 

 four families, namely: Frinacini, ^oricini, Taljnnl, and TJrsini. The 

 family Talpini contains three genera, namely: Talpa^ ScaJops, and 

 Chrysoehloris. The species are as follows: TaJpa europcva, Scalops cris- 

 tatus [ = Cotidylur(( cri.stata), Chrysoehloris mpensis. 



Our star-nosed mole, in this system, belongs to the order Plantigrada, 

 family Talpini., and genus Scalops. The system as a whole is of little 

 merit, considering that the bears are placed in the same order with the 

 moles, while the musk shrew, Mygale, on account of its webbed feet, 

 is i)laced in an entirely different division of the class. 



In 1821 we find the American moles placed with others by Dr. 

 Gray^ in a family called Mygaladw.,^ with the following genera: Mygale,^ 

 Scalops, Condylura, Chrysoehloris. 



The construction of this family is somewhat more satisfactory than 

 that of Fischer, in that Mygale is included ; but the inclusion of Chryso- 

 ehloris and the singular omission of Tulpa are serious defects.^ 



In 1825, and for nearly twenty years afterwards. Dr. Gray employed 

 a system which, so fjir as the family in which w^e are interested is con- 

 cerned, was distinctly inferior to the earlier oue.*^ He united all the 



' It is true that it occurs in De Blainville's Osteograpliie, published between 1839 

 and 1861, but as he employs the name Scaloj^s as a subgeueric terra the case is hardly 

 one in point. I should mention, however, that two specimens from North America 

 are marked Talpa euvopaa with a query in Waterhouse's catalogue of the mammalia 

 in the museum of the Zoological Society of Loudon, published in 1838 (p. 16). 



- Synopsis of Insectivorous Mammals. Bull. U. S. Geog. and Geol. Survey of the 

 Territories, No. 2, 2 ser., 187.5, p. 91. 



'On the natural arrangement of vertebrose animals. London Medical Repository, 

 XV, 1821, pp. 296-310. 



■'In these names the letter g is omitted in the original, but this i.s evidently a typo- 

 graphical error, of which there are many in the article. 



■■^No notice is taken here of tlie more general features of this classihcation. For 

 these, reference should be made to Dr. Gill's Synopsis. 



''Annals of Philosophy, XXVI (new series X), 1825, p. 337. 



