MAMMALS TALPIDAJE SCALOPS AQUATIC US. 



61 



The tail is very short and slender, about as long as the fore foot, and rather more than half 

 the length of the head ; it is slightly constricted at the base, tapers gently to a moderately ob 

 tuse tip, and is scantily coated with white hairs, which are invisible, except on close examina 

 tion, and allow the tail to appear naked. The upper surfaces of the feet are similarly consti 

 tuted, and all appear white in the fresh specimen. On the basal third or fourth of the tail, 

 the hairs are larger and darker, and more distinctly noticeable. 



The color of this species varies considerably. It is sometimes of a rather light and lustrous 

 pure plumbago, paler below, and without any appreciable mixture of reddish brown. Usually, 

 however, the hairs have a gloss of the latter color, particularly such as have been preserved for 

 a time in alcohol. The precise shade of coloration varies almost with the specimen. I have 

 never seen any as dark as S. toivnsendii, from Oregon, though several resembles closely in color 

 the S. californicus of Ayres. 



A single specimen in the entire series before me (No. 2465, from St. Simon's island, Georgia) 

 has a large transverse blotch or patch on the abdomen, in which the hairs are yellowish white 

 to the roots. This corresponds to a similar variety of Scalops townsendii, figured by Audubon 

 and Bachman, and described as a distinct species (S. tceniata) by Leconte. 



Measurements. 



The genera] range of this species is well indicated by the list of the specimens examined. 

 I am not sure that the one last mentioned, from Blount county, Tennessee, is not the S. argen- 

 tatus. Considerable differences exist in different specimens as to the breadth of the palm and 

 other characteristics; those from the southern States appearing to have them less fully developed. 

 I have, however, not been able to detect any positive characters by which they might be 

 distinguished. 



