NEOMYS 125 



1838. PiNALiA, J. E. Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. (London), 1837, 126, published 14th June 



1838 ; a MS. synonym of Crossopus. 

 1848. Galemys (part), A. Pomel, Archives Sci. Phys. et Naturelles (Geneva), 249, 



November ; included Brachysorex of Duvernoy, Crossopus of Wagler, and 



Pachyura of de Selys ; not Galetnys of Kaup, 1829, a genus of Talpidce. 

 1853. Myosictis, a. Pomel, Catalogue methodique et descriptif des Ventebres fossiles 



du Bassin de la Loire, 14 ; based on a fossil from a late pleistocene deposit ; not 



hitherto distinguished generically from Neomys. 

 1876. PiNULiA, A. R. Wallace, Geographical Distribution of Animals, ii., 191 ; a 



misprint for Pitialia. 



Synonymy:— The older naturalists included the water 

 shrews in the genus Sorex, and, after its subdivision, Crossopits 

 of Wagler was at first thought to be the earliest generic name 

 applicable to them. Later researches have, however, shown 

 that Neomys of Kaup has clear precedence. 



T\\^ gt-xwis Neomys includes but one British species, the well- 

 known N. fodiens, a characteristic inhabitant of streams and 

 rivers, ranging across Europe and Asia at least to Tomsk, 

 but absent from America and Africa. This species has the 

 tail keeled (Plate VII., Fig. 3) and the feet fringed (Plate 

 XI., Figs. I, 2, and 3), but in central Spain and the Pyrenees ; 

 the Alps and Hungary ; and near Erzerum, Turkey in Asia, 

 there occur forms — N. anomalus of Cabrera ; N. milleri of 

 Mottaz ; and N. teres of Miller, from the tails of which the 

 keel is said to be absent. 



Neomys makes its first known appearance in Britain in the 

 late pliocene Forest-bed of Norfolk, where it is represented by 

 the abundant remains of an extinct species called, by Hinton, 

 N. newtom, and characterised by its small size and the extreme 

 form of the mandibular condyle. A second extinct form, to be 

 fully described later by Hinton as N. browni, from the middle 

 pleistocene brickearth of Grays, Essex, was also smaller than 

 N. fodiens, and had a mandibular condyle of peculiar form. 



The genus bears a strong resemblance to Sorex, and 

 has a similar lateral gland and valves in the ear, although the 

 latter are often described as peculiar. The hands and feet are 

 also built on a similar plan, but carry swimming-fringes and 

 smaller pads. The hand is relatively longer, so that the pads 

 are more widely separated, especially the posterior pair (see 

 plates). In both hand and foot the fourth, not the third, digit 

 is the longest. 



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