190 GEOGRAPHICAL ZOOLOGY. [PART iv. 



FAMILY 21. TALPID^E. (^Genera, 9" Species.) 



GENERAL DISTRIBUTION. 



The Moles comprise many extraordinary forms of small mam- 

 malia especially characteristic of the temperate regions of the 

 northern hemisphere, only sending out a few species of Talpa 

 along the Himalayas as far as Assam, and even to Tenasserim, 

 if there is no mistake about this locality ; while one species is 

 found in Formosa, the northern part of which is almost as much 

 Palaearctic as Oriental. The genus Talpa (7 species), spreads 

 over the whole Palaearctic region from Great Britain to Japan ; 

 Scaptochirus (1 species) is a recent discovery in North China ; 

 Condylura (1 species), the star-nosed mole, inhabits Eastern 

 North America from Nova Scotia to Pennsylvania; Scapanus 

 (2 species) ranges across from New York to St. Francisco; 

 Scalops (3 species), the shrew-moles, range from Mexico to the 

 great lakes on the east side of America, but on the west only to 

 the north of Oregon. An allied genus, Myogale (2 species), has 

 a curious discontinuous distribution in Europe, one species being 

 found in South-East Eussia, the other in the Pyrenees (Plate II., 

 vol. i., p. 218). Another allied genus, Nectogale (1 species), has 

 recently been described by Professor Milne-Edwards from Thibet. 

 Urotrichus is a shrew-like mole which inhabits Japan, and a second 

 species has been discovered in the mountains of British Columbia; 

 an allied form, Uropsilus, inhabits East Thibet. Anurosorex 1 

 and Scaptonyx, are new genera from North China. 



Extinct Species. The common mole has been found fossil in 

 bone-caves and diluvial deposits, and several extinct species of 

 mole-like animals occur in the Miocene deposits of the South of 

 France and of Germany. These have been described under the 

 generic names Dimylus, Geotrypus, Hyporissus, Galeospalax ; while 

 Palceospalax has been found in the Pliocene forest-beds of Norfolk 



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