PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



49 



j1. 15. 



FORE FOOT OF SCAPANJS TOWNSENDI. 



Fig^. 14,' Lower surface. Fig. 15, Upper surfuiv. 



(Slightly above natural size. ) 



stricted at the base; skin scaly, clothed with long, coarse hairs, which 

 are not sufficiently numerous to conceal the skin itself. 

 Fur as in Scalops aqiutticus. 



Color blackish, varying to rich, dark metallic brown and to silvery 

 gray. Under surfaces usually considerably lighter than the back. 

 Hairs ijluuibeous, witli a subterminal whitish, grayish, or rusty ill- 

 defined ring and shining brown, gray or blackish 

 tips. Hairs of the snout white; those of the feet 

 and tail similar, varying to 

 brownish (especially in im- 

 mature individuals). 



SKULL. 



The skull of Srajxni vs 

 toicnsendi resembles that of 

 tScalojJS aquaiicus so closely in 

 most of its features that I do 

 not thinlv it necessary to de- 

 scribe it in detail, but will 

 point out the characters in which the two skulls diiJ'er most conspicuously. 



In Scapaniis townsendi the interparietal ' is 

 large, broad, and strap-sha[)ed. cutting oft" 

 the parietals transversely be- 

 j hind, and causing their pos- 



' tero-lateral border to be mucli 



shorter than their posterior 

 border. The supero anterior 

 I J extremity of the premaxilla' is 



i'-'xM little produced, and hence the 



anterior nares have the ap- 

 pearance of being directed 

 somewhat u]>ward. 



The palate is short, its pro- 

 longation posteriorly beyond 

 the last molar being much less 

 than the diameter of that tooth. It is einarginate be- 



18 • 



hmd and notched. The zygomatic arches afe short 



TAIL OF SCAPANUS n 1 mi • ^ • 1 -■ 



TOWNSENDI. ^'^tl nearly parallel. They spriug anteriorly tiom a 

 (Slightly above natural poliit about oppositc thc uuddle of the last molar, 

 and are inserted behind considerably within the mar- 

 gin of the postero-external wing of the squamosal, which latter is 



{ 



17. 



HIND FOOT OF SCAPANUS TOWNSENDI. 



V\g. II!, Lower surface. Fig. 17, Upper surface. 

 ( Slightly above natural size. ) 



'Following De Blainville and Wanner. I regai'd the portion of the occipital hone 

 anterior to the rudimentary lauihdoidal --ridge as representing an interparietal. In 

 none of the skulls of Anierican moles wiiich I have examined, however, even the 

 youngest ones, have I found more than an indicatiou of a separation of the inter- 

 parietal from the occipital. (See De Blainville, Osteogra2)hie, 1, Insectivores, p. 4; 

 Wagner, Schreber's Saiigethiere, II, p. 106.) 



Proc. N, M. vol. xix 4 



