NO. 1101. PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 95 



HISTORY. 



We encounter this species for the first time under the name of 

 Sorex cristatus in the tenth edition of Linn;eus's Systema Xaturte (1758, 

 p. 53). He gives Pennsylvania as its habitat, on the authority of Kalm. 

 The description is recognizal)le, though in some respects faulty, as, for 

 example, in relation to the number of processes of the nasal crest and 

 the length of the tail, llouttuyn, in 1701, ^ merely paraphrases Lin- 

 nteus's description and adds nothing. The description of the twelfth 

 edition of the Systema NatnrjTe- is essentially the same as that of the 

 tenth edition. The next author who mentions the star-nosed mole 

 appears to have been Pennant, who pul)lislicd the first edition of his 

 Synopsis of Quadrupeds in 1771. I have not had access to this work, 

 which contained both a description and a figure.-' I suppose that the 

 figure was the same as that which appears in the third edition of his 

 work, published in 1783. This latter figure, though crude, is recog- 

 nizable, but the tail is too short, an error which seems to have been 

 perpetuated for a long time. 



Pennant appears to have originated in his first edition the erroneous 

 statement that the star-nosed mole subsists upon roots. He had, how- 

 ever, the merit of placing the species among the moles rather than 

 with the shrews. 



In the first edition he included also a descriiition and figure* of a 

 "long tailed mole." If this description is the same as that of the third 

 edition, the jDhrase " mole with a radiated nose" must have been over- 

 looked by Erxleben, who records the species in 1777 under the name 

 of Talpa lon{iic((U(l((ta, and seems to have had no suspicion that it was 

 related to the star nosed mole.'' He records also the latter, uniting 

 the descriptions of the authors who preceded him, including both errors 

 and facts. He retains the species in the genus Sorex^ but states that 

 " ^orex crist<(tus and aquaticus agree with the mole in the form of the 

 body and its habit, but, so far as the teeth are concerned, have the 

 structure of the shrews."^ 



Schreber, in 1778, copies Linnaeus and Pennant.^ 



Pennant's figure of the star-nosed mole, in the third edition of his 

 Quadrupeds, 1783, has already been referred to. It was apparently 

 made from a specimen in the Leverian Museum.^ His figure of the 



•Nat. Hist, of Diereu, 1 deel, 2 stuk, 1761, p. 315. 



^Linn. Syst. Nat., 12th ed., 1766, p. 73. 



3Cf. Linn. Syst. Nat., IStli ed., 1788. p. 112. 

 . *F. 314, No. 244, pi. 28, fig. 2. (Fide Gnielin.) 



^Syst. Eegn. Animal., 1777, p. 118. Miiller in 1773 (Des Linno Natnrsystem, I, 

 1773, p. 300) mentions C. crisfata nndei" tlie name of "Die Ilaarnase, Sorex cristata," 

 bnt gives no new information regarding it. He does not mention the "long-tailed 

 mole." 



•Loc. cit., p. 121, footnote. 



'Saiigethiere, 3 Th., 1778 (?), p. 561.— "Der langschwanzte Maulwurf. P. 566, 

 "Der Kammnase." 



^History of Quadrnpeds, 3d t-d., II, 1783, p. 232, pi. 90, fig. 1, No. 442. 



