R 12 British CoLUuMBIA. 1921 




of front incisor teeth; those of the upper jaw being long and generally sickle-shaped, with a 
more or less distinct cusp at the base of their hinder border, while in the lower jaw they are 
long and project horizontally forwards, in some instances curving upward at the tips, and, with 
the exception of perhaps one African species, have only six teeth on each side of the lower jaw. 
With the exception of a few species which have taken to an aquatic life, the shrews are 
terrestrial and nocturnal in their habits. Shrews have a wider distribution than any other 
family of the Insectivores and comprise a far larger number of species. 
Until quite recent years there appears to have been a diversified opinion in the nomenclature 
applied to many of our shrews. , 
In 1895 three papers by C. Hart Merriam and Gerrit 8. Miller, Jr., were published by the 
United States Department of Agriculture (Division of Ornithology and Mammalogy) in the 
“North American Fauna,’ No, 10, revising the shrews of the American genera Blarina and 
Notiosorer; the long-tailed shrews of the Eastern United States; and a general synopsis of 
the American shrews of the genus Sorez. From this revision we are able to some extent to 
classify the shrews occurring within our limits. 
From a perusal of these papers it is proposed here to briefly outline the earlier-known history 
of our shrews, which may be acceptable to some of our readers interested in the study of our 
smaller mammals. 
For a long period the short-tailed shrews ®f the genera Blarina and Notiosorer, which so 
far as we know do not occur within our limits, were included in the genus Sorez, and were first 
separated by Gray in 1838S under the name of Blarina proposed as a subgenus; in 1842 Blarina 
was raised to full generic rank by Lesson; Baird in 1857 divided the genus Blarina in two 
sections according to the number of teeth, and Coues in 1877 recognized and named these sections 
as subgenera, Blarina proper with thirty-two teeth and Soriciscus with thirty; the reduction 
being in the unicuspids, of which there are five in Blarina proper, as in true Sorer, and only 
four in Soriciscus. The lost tooth in the latter subgenus is the second premolar. ; 
The first short-tailed shrews known to naturalists were two specimens secured by Mr. Say, 
naturalist to Major Long’s expedition to the Rocky Mountains in Eastern Nebraska, a few miles 
north of the present City of Omaha. These two specimens curiously became the types of the 
largest and smallest species of the genus Blarina, and later of the two subgenera into which the 
genus was split, collected during the winter of 1819-20 and described by Mr. Say in 1828, the 
larger as Sorex brevicaudus, the smaller as Sorex parvus. 
Long-tailed Shrews of the Genus Sorex. 
The first account of an American marsh-shrew was published in 1828, when Richardson 
described Sorex palustris, an animal he had found frequenting the borders of lakes in the region 
between Hudson Bay and the Rocky Mountains. In 1857 Baird placed Sorex palustris among the 
species unknown to him, but which he considered as probably worthy of recognition, at the same 
time describing the new genus Neosorex and the species Neosorex navigator from Washington. 
Our first accurate knowledge of Sorex palustris dates from 1890, when Dr. Dobson figured 
the teeth of the type specimen, and in another paper published the same year discussed the 
validity of the genus Neosorer, coming to the conclusion that Sorex palustris and Neosorer 
navigator are the same, and that Neosorex, so far from being a genus, cannot even be recognized 
as a subgenus; a year later Dr. Merriam recorded Sorex palustris from Idaho, at the same time 
remarking that he considered Neosorex a very good subgenus. 
The type specimen of Sorex palustris is in the British Museum; while its condition is such 
as to furnish no evidence, it was deemed necessary to judge the old descriptions on their own 
merits, and as all the early accounts of Sorer palustris refer to its pale, ash-grey belly, and as 
the geographical range, indefinite though it is, coincides with that of the Western animal, it is 
proper to apply the name to the latter. : 
That the type of Sorex palustris is a Neosorer and not an Atophyrar is shown by the teeth, 
which are nearly unworn; Neosorez is confined to North America, and, although not closely 
related to the Old World Crossopus, shows a remarkable comparison with the latter, both in 
habits and external appearance, both being aquatic, inhabiting marshes and the borders of 
streams, 2 
All American shrews have two pelages commonly known as winter and summer eoats, and, 
as is usual among small mammals, the moult takes place at different dates among individuals 

