NO. 1101. PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 63 



His description, however, is strictly applicable to Scapanns town- 

 sendi. It would be necessary to use the name canadensis for the 

 uortheni Pacific Coast mole were it not that other writers applied 

 this latinized form of Cuvier's appellation at an earlier date to iScalo^JS 

 aqnaticus — namely, Desmarest in 1820, and Harlan in 18125. 



We must, therefore, seek out the next name used for our northern 

 Pacific Coast species, which is Bacbman's Bcalops toicnsendli, estab- 

 lished in 1839.^ Bachman had two specimens, one of which was given 

 him by ]S^uttall and the other he subsequently received from Towusend. 

 The former is the type. Exactly where it was captured is not stated 

 in connection with the original description, but later Bachman'^ re- 

 marked that he believed that it was from the 'same locality as Town- 

 send's specimen. The latter was from the "banks of the Cohimbia 

 Biver, May 9, 18;35." At this date Kiittall and Townsend were together 

 on the Columbia, at Fort Vancouver, or at AVarrior's Point, about 20 

 miles down the river, having recently returned from a voyage to the 

 Sandwich Islands. It may be assumed, therefore, that the locality of 

 the ty])e was Fort Yancouver, or the immediate neighborhood. 



In 1842, when reviewing the genus Scalojys, Bachman descril)ed 

 another western species,'' IS. h(tuna)ius, basing it on a specimen in the 

 Berlin Museum, which he supposed to have been obtained in Mexico, 

 and one he had received from Texas. Peters afterwards^ showed that 

 the si)ecimen supposed to be from Mexico was a Seapanus. I have 

 considered the species somewhat at length in another place (p..")8), and 

 am disposed to regard it as identical with typical 8. toirnscndl. 



In 1818, Pomel took *S'. foii-nsendi out of the genus Scalops and (estab- 

 lished the genus Scaptajius for its reception.-' 



Somewhat later, in 1853, Cassiu published a description of what 

 appeared to be a very remarkable new sjiecies from a specimen, Scalops 

 a'neiis, obtained in Oregon by the United States Exploring Expedition.*^ 

 It ai)pears from an examination of the type, however, tliat the striking 

 peculiarities of the type specimen are due to its having been kept for 

 a long time in a copper tank.- The skull has disappeared, but there is 

 little reason to doubt that the specimen is only a rather young >Scai)- 

 anns toirnsendl. 



Wlien describing Scapanns toivnsendi, Bachman had betbre him, as 

 already stated, two specimens, one of which (Townsend's specimen) 

 had au irregular white mark on the under side of the body. In 1851, 

 Le Conte, thinking that he detected certain other peculiarities in this 

 sj)ecimen, described it anew under the name of TaJpa iwnialaJ For 



' Journ. Acad. Xat. Sci. Phila.. VIII, pt. 1, 1839, p. 58. 

 -Boston Jouru. Nat. Hist., IV, 1842, p. 32. 

 ■•' Boston Journ. Nat. Hist., IV, 1842, p. 34. 

 "Monatsber. Berlin Akad. fiir 1863 (1861), p. 656. 

 ^Archiv. Sci. Phys. ct Nat., IX, 1848, p. 247. 

 eProc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., VI, 1853, p. 299. 

 ^Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Pliila., VI, 1853, p. 327. 



