BEriSIOX OF AMERICAX .VOLES— TRUE. 



continue to call it a species, as the mountain Avbicli it inhabits is cut 

 off from more northeily ones by a considerable extent of avid territory. 

 It is a nice question to decide how great a degree of isolation is sufli- 

 cient to warrant the recognition of a species. No one will doubt, I 

 presume, that the characters which this form presents (with the excep- 

 tion of that relative to the dentition) are a lunction of humidity and 

 food supply. 



In 1842i;acliman described a species which he called Scalops loiima- 

 niis,^ basing it in part on a specimen in the Berlin Museum, sui)posed 

 to be from IMexico, and in part on a second specimen which he rei^eivcd 

 from Texas. What the Texas si)ecimen really was is not discoverable, 

 but in 18(i4 Peters pointed out that the specimen which Baclnnan suj)- 

 posed to be from Mexico was sent to the nuiscum from Monterey, Cal- 

 ifornia, by Dei)pe, and was collected in October, 183^, in Santa Clara. 

 I'eters seems to have been in doubt as to whether this latter locality 

 was not in Sonora, Mexico, but probably Santa Clara, California, is the 

 place intended. However this nmy be, the description of the specimen 

 seems to indicate that it jnust have come from the extreme northern 

 portion of California, or from Oregon. The color and size are not 

 those of the mole of southern California. This being the case, it 

 seems reasonable to regard the species as synonymous with Scapanits 

 toioisendi.'' 



Another nominal species is Cassin's Scalojys ceneus, based on a speci- 

 men obtained by the United States Exploring Expedition in Oregon. 

 Tlie type skin, No. 3725, is still in the National Museum, but the skull 

 has disappeared. All the remarkable characters of this species, such as 

 black claws, bronze coloration, etc., are unnatural, and suggest the con- 

 clusion (of which I think there can be no question) that the specimen 

 was kept in a copper tank in alcohol which had attacked the walls of 

 the tank, and held copper salts in solution. I have seen other si)eci- 

 mens which presented the same appearance, and were known to have 

 suffered Irom the same cause. Allowance being: made for the dis- 

 cohn-ation, the specimen appears to be a youngish individual of typical 

 S. ioicn.scndi. (I have given the measurements of the type on p. 04.) 



Another nominal species is the Talpa Uvniata of LeConte,^ described in 

 18.").) and based on one of the two typical specimens of S. toirnsendi, 

 which liad an irregular white mark on the belly. This specimen was 

 collected by Townsend on the banks of the Columbia Kiver, May 0, 

 183."), probably at or near Fort Vancouver, Oregon, which is also the 

 locality from Avhich the real type of *S'. ton-nsoxli was obtained. 



The characters employed by LeConte are as follows: 



Nares snperiii, Cauda brevi parce pilosa. Ciiiero-nigra. ])e(lil)us ]ialliiln8. fronte 

 vittaciue infeiua albis. 



' Boston Jouru. Nat. Hist., IV, 1842, p. 34. 



- Monatsbeiiclito der k. Prenss. Akad. Wisseiisch. Berlin, 1863, (1864), p. 656. 



sproc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Pliila., VI, 1853, p. 327. 



