MAMMALS SORICItfAE BLARINA EXILIPES. 



61 



BLAKINA EXILIPES, Baird. 



Sr. CH. Small. Fur full, longest hairs measuring 2 lines. Feet very small ; the anterior not 3| lines ; the posterior 5, or 

 about five-eighths the length of the skull. 



Color above, hoary olive-brown, with a chestnut tinge. Beneath, grayish-white. Tail bicolored. Head and body, less than 

 2 inches. Tail about O.CO of an inch. 



Size very small ; body slender. Ear small and concealed in the fur, apparently much as in 

 /$. cinereus. Fur full, compact, longest hairs measuring about two lines. Feet very small ; 

 anterior contained one and a half times in the posterior, which are not five eighths the length 

 of the skull. The hand, however, appears larger. The soles, as far as can be ascertained, are 

 hairy towards the heel, as in S. cinereus and other short-tailed species. There is a seventh 

 tubercle behind the posterior hair. The first toe appears unusually short, barely reaching the 

 anti-penultimate articulation. The tail is very short, not as long as the head, thin, and coated 

 with short hairs. 



Color. The upper parts are of an olive chestnut-brown, or, perhaps, a light liver-brown, with 

 a slight purplish tinge and a hoary appearance, caused by the light bar near the tips of the 

 hairs. Beneath, grayish or ashy white, with a tinge of yellowish anteriorly. The tail is 

 bicolor. 



The skull is broader anteriorly than in the long-tailed shrews. The dental formula is 

 3- + 2T2-}-3Z3 30. The anterior upper incisors have a basal conical process, scarcely to be 

 called a hook, which comes down as far as the lateral teeth, and is nearly as large as the first 

 one. There is no internal lobe and the teeth are considerably separated. The first lateral tooth 

 is rather smaller than the second, and the third little more than half as long as the latter ; a 

 slight diastema anterior to the first upper molar barely allows the fourth lateral to be seen. 

 The lower anterior incisors have very obsolete dentations on the cutting edge. The crowns and 

 points of all the teeth are well colored, of a dark chestnut ; darkest on the tips. 



Measurements. 



Measurements taken before skinning. 



