■^^^914^] ALLEN — MAMMALS 55 



head, muzzle and sides of the face, due to a gradual intermixture of pale- 

 tipped hairs. On the sides of the body the color passes in like manner 

 into pale buffy, and then to the dull whitish of the lower parts, which, in 

 the middle region, are slightly washed with 'pale buff.' Upper side of 

 fore feet dusky white, of the hind feet clearer silvery. Tail distinctly 

 bicolor, well haired, with a pencil of dark hairs at the tip; above, bister, 

 below, silvery white. The winter pelage is extraordinarily long and dense, 

 more so than in any of the other shrews in the collection. That of the 

 middle of the back is 12 mm. long in the type. 



A topotype, taken October 2, 1911, and still in the short summer pelage, 

 is slightly darker above than the winter specimen, with a distinct trace of a 

 cinnamon wash on the sides of the head, shoulders, and body, and the tail 

 is dusky below for nearly the terminal half. 



Skull and teeth. — In dorsal view the skull is similar in shape to that of 

 S. araneus, and is of nearly the same size. The teeth are quite different, 

 however. In all the specimens the pigmentation is exceedingly strong. 

 The tips of all the unicuspids are colored, while the molariform teeth have 

 not only the W-portion, but both protocones and hypocones, a deep red. 

 This is strongest at the points of the cusps, and spreads into the valleys so 

 that only the narrowest line at their bottoms is left clear. The basal lobe 

 of the first upper incisor is strongly marked off, and is of about the same 

 size as the crown of the first unicuspid. The unicuspids form a graded 

 series, each slightly less than the one before, the fifth, however, minute and 

 slightly crowded to the inside of the tooth-row. The outlines of the four 

 first unicuspids are highly characteristic, and quite unlike those of any 

 species with which I am acquainted, in that, instead of being pyramidal, 

 with sides tapering to a definite point, they are almost parallel-sided with a 

 forward pitch, and are rather abruptly truncated at their extremity so as 

 to have a nearly horizontal, broadly rounded, cutting edge. According to 

 Thomas, the teeth of S. daphaenodon, to which this seems related, are not 

 greatly different from those of S. araneus. The anterior cusp of the first 

 lower incisor is obsolete, and the same is true to a less degree of the posterior 

 cusp, while the central one is low but well defined. 



Measurements.— The type, measured in the flesh: total length, 86.5 

 mm.; tail, 32; hind foot, 12.5. The extremes of ten other specimens are : 

 total length, 82-92 mm. (average 87.2); tail, 28-33 (average 30.6). Skull: 

 condylobasal length, 18.6 mm.; basal length, 16; palatal length, 8.4; 

 greatest width outside last molars, 5.5; least interorbital width, 3.7; 

 greatest width of brain-case, 9.5; maxillary tooth-row, 7.9; mandibular 

 tooth-row, 7.3. 



Remarks. — This shrew seems undoubtedly to represent on the 

 mainland the S. daphaenodon described by Thomas from Saghalien 



