HEDGEHOGS AND SHREWS OF TURKEY — OSBORN 563 



C. lasiura from the Black Sea on the basis of the similarity of the 

 genitalia of the named forms which he examined. The localities of 

 these specimens are shown in figure 4. 



The distribution of C. leucodon (fig. 4) suggests that, prior to the 

 formation of the Bosporus, there was continuous distribution of the 

 species between Anatolia and the Balkans via Thrace. 



Crocidura russula Hermann 



Sharp-nosed mouse of the house (sivri burunlu ev faresi), European 

 white-toothed shrew, greater white-toothed shrew. 



This shrew is widely distributed in Europe and Asia (Bate, 1945; 

 Bobrinskii et al., 1944; Bodenheimer, 1958; Dor, 1947, and Van den 

 Brink, 1956). It is the only species of shrew from the Near East 

 known to exist on an island, being reported from Crete by Bate (1905) 

 and Wettstein (1953). Prior to my collections, C. russula was known 

 to occur in Turkey only in the mountains south of Trabzon (Thomas, 

 1906) and in the vicinity of Ankara (two skms in the Zoological 

 jMuseum, Munich) (fig. 4; table 4). 



Specimens of C. russula were trapped in various habitats. One was 

 captured by hand at mid-day on the open beach sand at Sile. A few 

 were trapped in piles of trash from gardens and fields. The specimen 

 from Mereyem Ana was trapped in grass in an abandoned field. Near 

 Cehennem Dere (Hell River) south of Namrun, specimens were trapped 

 among stones in a pine and fir forest, and in a hardwood forest near 

 Bektafjaga, Sinop. Two specmiens were taken in a swamp in the 

 steppe 15 kilometers northeast of Kayseri. The majority of speci- 

 mens, however, came from streambanks, springs, or swamps. The 

 labels on two specimens from Ankara in the Zoological Museum, 

 Munich, read: "collected in house." 



My specimen from Sumela (Mereyem Ana) and those in the British 

 Museum from Scalita and Khotz (Qosandere) in the mountains south 

 of Trabzon are very dark and concolor probably as a response to the 

 humid conditions found in the eastern Black Sea region. Other 

 species of mammals such as Erinaceus europaeus, Pityms subterraneus , 

 and Clethrionomys glareolus also are darkest in this part of their range. 



Previous records of the distribution of C. russula indicated a broad 

 discontinuity between populations of southeastern Europe and cen- 

 tral Anatolia. Now, however, with my collections from western 

 Anatolia and the records of Markov (1957) from Bulgaria, there is a 

 good indication that the species probably occurs in Thrace. The 

 species could have migrated from Europe to Anatolia either via 

 Thrace or across the southern Aegean land bridge via Crete. 



