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 such a 

 way as to lead one to suspect the presence of an aquatic insec- 

 tivorous animal, but all efforts failed to secure specimens. 



FAMILY TALPIDJE, MOLES. 



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 



