MAMMALS OF MINNESOTA. 49 
_ Neosorex palustris is an aquatic species found rarely in New 
England, which may be expected here. I have noticed on sev- 
eral occasions burrows and tracks leading to the water’s edge, 
with small gasteropod mollusk shells scattered about in sucha 
way as to lead one to suspect the presence of an aquatic insec- 
tivorous animal, but all efforts failed to secure specimens. 
Fammny TALPIDA, Motes. 
The moles proper are easily distinguished, and constitute a 
natural and compact group. The genera are few and widely 
distributed, and although a rather large number of nominal 
species have been formed on superficial characters, the vari- 
ability is sufficient to reduce them to very few distinct specific 
types. It is strange that naturalists should be surprised to find 
in animals only rarely seen, and then under exceptional condi- 
tions, the same variation which is everywhere observed in our 
familiar species, and yet every slight variation in color and 
proportions, has been seized as a reason for creating a new 
species in this family. 
In appearance the moles resemble the shrews in several 
respects, but there could hardly be found a more striking 
diversity of habit than that furnished by the active, vivacious, 
social and terrestrial shrew, and the clumsy fossorial hermit 
whose disposition seems as crabbed as any one’s should be, 
immured by caprice in damp, endless labyrinths. 
. The head is very large and elongated, terminating in a slen- 
der, generally flattened proboscis, in which the nostrils open 
upward. The eyes are minute, and are either concealed in the 
pelage or are entirely covered by the skin. The shoulder is 
enormously developed, while the arm is greatly shortened and 
bears an enormous shovel-shaped, five-toed manus, set at right 
angles to the axis of the body, so as to play laterally in pushing 
the earth aside. The posterior part of the body is compara- 
tively weak, and the hind feet and tail small, the latter usually 
naked. Moles are entirely insectivorous, and, except for the 
unsightly mounds sometimes made, and the persistency with 
which they at times mine in cultivated ground, should rank as 
true aids to the gardener. A deep seated prejudice against 
them existed from early times, and in the early days of Europe 
an official mole catcher formed one of the stipendiaries of a 
well equipped manor. Moles were thought to have something 
