526 



SOREX. SHREW. 



Generic Character. 



Denies Primores superiores 



duo, long}, bifidi. 

 Inferiores duo vel quatuor; 



intermediis brevioribus. 

 Laniarii utrinque plures. 



Molar es cuspidati. 



Front-teeth in the upper jaw 



two, long, bifid. 

 In the lower two or four; the 



intermediate ones shorter. 

 Canine-teeth several on each 



side. 

 Grinders cuspidated. 



THI 



[E genus Sorex, in its general appearance, 

 bears a great resemblance to the mouse tribe ; but 

 the structure, number, and situation of the teeth 

 prove it to constitute a very different set of ani- 

 mals, which are evidently rather carnivorous than 

 frugivorous. It is more closely allied to the ge- 

 nus Talpa ; insomuch that these two genera may 

 be considered as linked to each other by interme- 

 diate species, which in habit resemble the one ge- 

 nus, and in teeth the other. It is owing to this 

 circumstance that Linnaeus, in the twelfth edi- 

 tion of the Systema Naturae, has placed one or 

 two genuine species of Talpa in the genus Sorex. 

 The most common species of Sorex in this coun- 

 try is the S. Araneus, commonly known by the 

 name of the Shrew Mouse. 



