FAMILY SORECID.E. 15 



GENUS SCALOPS. Cuvier. 



Muzzle elongated and simple, flexible, cartilaginous. Eyes tninute, and scarcely visible. 

 No external ears, but simply a minute aperture. Feet short, five-toed ; the hand broad, 

 with fingers joined together by the integuments to the last phalanx ; the claivs long and 

 flat. Hind feet slender, with delicate hooked nails. Teeth : Incisors, § - j ; cheek teeth, 

 = 34 - 46. A musky gland near the vent. 



X 8^ _ 3 . 

 I 3 



THE COMMON SHREW-MOLE. 



ScALOPS AaCATICUS. 



PLATE IV. FIG a.— (STATE COLLECTION.) 



SoTex aqttaticus. LiN. 12 cd. p. 74. 



Brown Mole. Pexn. Arct. Zool. Vol. 1, p. 141. 



S. aquaticus. ScHREBER, Saugthiere, pi. 15S, (indifferent.) 



S. canadensis. Harlan, Fauna Americana, p. 32. 



The Slirew-mole. GoDMAN, Am. Xat. His!. Vol. 1, p. 81, fig. 3. 



Scalops canadensis. RiCHAKDSox, F. B- A. Vol. 1, p. 9. 



ShreuMmile. Emmoss, Massachusetts Report, 1840, p. 15. 



Characteristics. Fur glossy, and like velvet; its most usual color silvery grey, brown. 

 Length, 6-8 inches. — Var. «, bright tawny ; b, hoary. 



Description. Body cyandrical, without any distinctly apparent neck. Far thick, velvety 

 and lustrous. Head small, with its muzzle elongated to a point. The muzzle about a 

 quarter of an inch long, and naked towards its extremity, which is truncated. The nostrils 

 are oblong, and placed just above its smooth truncated extremity. Eyes exceedingly minute, 

 and completely concealed among the fur. No external ear ; the auditory opening entirely 

 concealed in the fur about three-quarters of an inch behind the eye, and just admitting the 

 point of a pin. Fore feet apparently naked, but in fact covered with short white hairs. The 

 five phalanges are united at the base of the claws, which arc large, white, flat, slightly 

 curved, and browTiish beneath near their bases. According to Godman, it is furnished exterior 

 to the thumb with an additional bone articulated to the wrist, and a similar rudimentary one 

 on the external edge of the hand. Hind feet slender, thinly covered by hair, and with small 

 white compressed claws. Tail thickest in the middle, tapering to a point, and sparsely 

 furnished with short hairs. The descriptions of the teeth, as given by various authors, vary 

 not only in the names given to the different kinds of teeth, but likewise in the total number ; 

 the incisors, for instance, are confounded with the canines, these latter with the molars. 

 Hence, when the second cheek tooth on each side is lost, the first, which is closely in contact 

 with the incisor, is considered as a second incisor ; and thus confusion arises from the 

 inspection of a single head, or from immature or imperfect ones. Desmarest accordingly 

 assigns thirty teeth as the total number ; F. Cuvier thirt3--six, in which he is copied by God- 

 man ; and Richardson, with a fully develojjed skull, enumerates forty-four. We have but 



