MOLES — SHREWS. 231 



It was for long thought that the Mole was found in North America as well as in Europe. 

 This was a mistake, owing to the extreme similarity of the American Scalops to our Mole. In fact, 

 until the natiu-alist takes them in hand and points out the differences, they would be passed by any 

 modcratclj- observant jjerson as identical. They are foiuid in nearly every portion of North America 

 as far south as Mexico. One rather remarkable form constituting the genus Condylura, the Star- 

 nosed Mole, which is characterised by the point of the nose being star-shaped, inhabits the northern 

 parts of the United States from the Atlantic to the Pacific. One species of Scalops, perhaps two, is 

 restricted to the Pacific coast, one to the Atlantic. One is found sparingly in New York, Massa- 

 chusetts, and Ohio, and another on the prairies of Michigan, Illinois, and the west. The genus 

 TIrotrichus has hitherto been found only on the west side of the Cascade Mountains, "Washington 

 Territory, California.* 



The Cape or Gilded Mole, Chrysochi.oris, so called from the greenish golden gloss of its fur, 

 is wholly South African. It differs somewhat in its structure from the true Moles, having, for 

 example, only three fingers developed in the fore-pavrs instead of five. The number of teeth 

 is smaller ; but its general apj)earance and habits are the same as those of the Mole, their 

 galleries, perhaps, being only somewhat deeper. Three species are known to belong to it ; one 

 from the Cape, another fi'om Natal, and a third from Mozambique. 



I know of no fossil remains of the Mole. 



Shrews. — (Map 64.) The Soricix.e first make their appearance in small number of species 

 during the miocene period, and continue through the glacial epoch to the present time, without 

 material change of form or size. 



Although they have been divided into many sections it will be sufficient, for the purpose of 

 showing their distribution, to separate them into three. The long-tailed Shrews (Sorex, Amphi- 

 SOREX, and Crossopus), which are found in the northern part of both hemispheres, extending all 

 across Europe, Asia, and North America ; the short-tailed Shrews (Blarina), which are confined to 

 North America ; and the section Crocidi'Ra, whose habitat is in the tropical part of the Old World, 

 with a few species which extend a little be3'ond the tropic of Cancer into Europe and Asia. The 

 last are chiefl}- distinguished from the other Shrews by their dentition. In outward appearance 

 they do not materially differ from them. The Desman (Myogai.e) is a Shrew with a naked, more or 

 less compressed tail, of which one species is found in the south-east of Russia, and another on the 

 banks of the streams at the foot of the Pyrenees. Its bare and laterally compressed taU, like that 

 of the Musk Rat in North America, shows another point of affinity in this order to the Rodents. 

 Remains of an extinct species of Desman have been found in the miocene beds at Sansans, in the 

 south of France. 



SoLENODON. Until lately, this singular genus was only known from a description, by Professor 

 Brandt, of St. Petersburg, of a species found in St. Domingo, five-and-twenty years ago,t of which 

 there were only two specimens known, one in the St. Petersburg Museum, and another (imperfect) 

 formerly in the collection of the Zoological Society, now in the British Museum. It is about the size 

 of a Rat, with a tail nearly as long as itself ; has a snout like a Shrew, but a number of affinities 



* Baibd, in " United States Pacific Railroad Explora- Geuere, " Mem. Acad. St. Petersburg," ii. p. 459, 1836; and 

 tion," 1 8.57, vol. viii. "Mammal. Esoticor, Descriptioncs et Icones," pp. 1-20. 



t BuAKDT, De Solenodonte, Novo Mammalium Tab. 1, 2, 1835. 



