BE VISION OF AMERICAN MOLES— TRUE. 



insectivorous mammals then kuown in tlie single family Talpida\ It 

 miglit be supjiosed tliat this was merely a case of employing the term 

 family in the sense of order, but such is not the truth, as appears from 

 the fact that the Talpidcv with other families was included in the order 

 Fera'. 



The system proposed by Bonaparte in 1831 does not differ essen- 

 tially so far as the family Talpidiv is concerned from that of Fischer 

 and the earlier one of Gray, but the genus T<dpa is restored to its 

 proper idace. His section TaJpuia of the family Talpidw comj)rises the 

 genera Talpia, Condylnr<i, CJirysochloriti, Seah>2)'S.^ A remarkable fea- 

 ture of his classification is that the family Talpidw (which he also 

 styles Insect irora, a name now used for the order) is placed under the 

 order Chiroptera. 



Pomel's system proposed in 1848 has no merit so far as the moles as a 

 whole are concerned, as he brings them into one group, called the 

 family SpxdacogaJa', with the shrews and such other genera as Chry-so- 

 cMori.s and Solenodon.'^ 



The divisions which he makes in his tribe (or subfamily) Tcdpinai 

 however, leaving out of consideration the fossil forms and the remote 

 genera mentioned above, are nearly such as are now current. With 

 the eliminations mentioned, we have the following : 



First tribe — Talpiua. 



First type — [Pachyrhiniens.] 

 Talpa. 

 Mogera. 



Astromycter [=:Condylura.] 

 Second type — [Leptorliinieus.] 

 Scalops. 

 Scapanus. 

 Secoud tribe^-Mygalina. 



First type— [Amblysoiniens.] 

 Second type — [Macrurieus.] 



Mygale, 

 Third type — [Unnamed]. 

 Urotriehns.' 



Gervais's system, published in his iS"atural History of Mammals in 

 1854, is hardly more satisfactory, as he classifies Vroirk-livH and Myyale 

 with the shrews, and leaves Chrysochloris among the moles. ^ His 

 arrangement is as follows: 



Famille des Talpides. 



Tribu do8 Chrysocblores. 



Genre Chrysochlore (Chrysochloris). 

 Tribu des Scalojtes. 



Genre Scalope (Scalops). 



iBona])arte, Saggio Dist. Metod. Ann. Vert., 1831, p. 16. 



2Archiv. Sci. Phys. et Nat., IX, 1848, pp. 244-252. 



^Dr. Gill, in his abstract of the system, ha.s added the words "Japan, California," 

 to the name of this genus, from which it might be inferi'ed that Pomel knew of the 

 occurrence of an Urotrichiis-\i]s.e mole in California at this early date (1848). This 

 is not really the case, however. In Bull. Geol. Soc. France, 2 ser., VI, 1848, p. 58, 

 Ponit'l remarks "Le genre Uroirichus ne sort pas du .Tapon." 



■» Histoire naturelle des manuuiferes, 1, 1854-55, p. 250. 



