48 U. 8. P. R. R. EXP. AND SURVEYS ZOOLOGY GENERAL REPORT. 



, Burlington, Vt., Prof. Z. Thompson, (skin.) 



o The first four measurements taken from the alcoholic specimen. 

 B WITH FOUR UPPER PREMOLARS, TEETH 30. 



BLARINA CINEREA. 



Sortx cinernu, BACH., J. A. N. Sc. Ph. VII, 1837, 373 ; pi. xxiii, f. 3. 

 ? ? ? Sorex port>tu, SAT, Long's Exped. I, 1823, 163. 



g p . CH. Longest hairs on the back measuring about two lines and a half. Feet small ; hand contained about one and a half 

 times in the foot, which is but little more than half the skull. Tail shorter than the head ; very thin. 



Color above, iron-gray, glossed with dark olive-brown ; beneath, light gray. Color of the tail, sharply defined. Head and 

 body about 2$ inches. Tail, .75 of an inch. Hind foot about .42. 



(Specimens 320, 94.) Body rather stout and full ; muzzle moderately long, with the snout 

 bilobed as usual, and the nostrils lateral. Whiskers rather short, and not very numerous, 

 mixed hlack and white. Ears short, entirely concealed by the fur ; in life the auricle directed 

 forwards and covering the meatus ; no hair on the external face of the ear, except on the 

 extreme edges of the supplementary lobes, formed by antitragus and antihelix. Fur rather 

 short, and not compact, the longest hairs measuring about two and a half lines. Feet very 

 small ; anterior contained one and a half times in the hinder, which can be little more 

 than half the length of the skull, although this is defective in all the specimens before me. 

 The first toe is short, its claws not quite reaching the penultimate articulation of the second. 



The tail is very short, not as long as the head, very slender and depressed in the dried skin, 

 well coated with hairs, which project slightly at the tip, but without forming a distinct pencil. 



The upper parts are of mixed iron gray and olive brown, the fur being lead color at base, 

 then light iron gray, and finally tipped with olive brown : the combination of these tints gives 

 a hoary appearance, somewhat resembling a pepper and salt. The under parts are of a lighter 

 tint of brownish gray or light ash ; the line of demarcation in one specimen indistinct, in 

 another more evident. The upper half of the tail is like the back ; the lower lighter than the 

 belly ; the two colors sharply defined. 



The skulls of the specimens before me are too much broken to exhibit their true shape and 

 proportions. The dental formula is ~ -|- ^ -f- ~ 30. 



The upper anterior incisor is much hooked, with a second hook on the cutting edge, a little 

 anterior to the base, its point coming down to a line with those of the succeeding teeth. There 

 is no internal lobe to these incisors, and the pair approach each other at an angle, without meet 

 ing, to near the tips, which are parallel. The first premolar tooth is a little smaller than the 

 second ; the third considerably smaller than either (about half as long as the second). There 

 is a very slight interval between the third lateral tooth and the first molar, and the diminutive 



