412 



SCIENCK 



[N. S. Vol. hi. No. 63. 



The North American species of shrews fall 

 rather naturally into two principal groups, 

 which in popular language are known as the 

 short-tailed shrews and the long-tailed-shrews. 

 The former, comprising the genera Blarina and 

 Notiosorex, are strictly North American ; the 

 latter, referable to Sorex proper (with, however, 

 several subgenera), belong to a genus widely 

 dispersed over the northern hemisphere. Of 

 the short-tailed shrews, the genus Notiosorex 

 comprises, as now known, only a single species, 

 with a range from near the southern border of 

 the United States southward over a large part 

 of Mexico ; Blarina has a much wider distribu- 

 tion, ranging, in eastern North America, from 

 about the southern border of Canada southward 

 throvigh Mexico to the mountains of Guatemala 

 and Costa Rica, but in the United States is 

 mainly restricted to the region east to the Great 

 Plains. It is divisible into two subgenera — 

 Blarina proper, and CryptotU, chiefly in refer- 

 ence to the number of the teeth, which are 32 in 

 the former and 80 in the latter. In general the 

 species of Blarina are much the larger, and 

 are more northern in distribution, this group 

 being 'absolutely restricted to the United 

 States,' all of the Mexican and Central Ameri- 

 can species belonging to the subgenus Crypfotis, 

 which in turn is almost unrepresented north of 

 the Carolinian Fauna. 



It is a singular fact in the history of the genus 

 Blarina that a representative of both of its 

 sections was made known by Say in 1823, from 

 the same locality, namely, from Engineer Can- 

 tonment, near the present site of Omaha, Ne- 

 braska, and that they were the first forms of the 

 group made known to science. Say named 

 them respectively Sorex brevioaudus and Sorex 

 parvus. The latter name especially has ever 

 since been a stumbling block in the way of sys- 

 tematists, but, thanks to Dr. Merriam, is so no 

 longer, his large series from the type locality 

 enabling him to define it and establish its rela- 

 tions to the various names given later to shrews 

 from other parts of the country. It thus proves 

 to antedate cinereus of Bachman, while several 

 species provisionally separated from it by Baird 

 are now referred to it as synonyms. 



Blarina, according to Dr. Merriam, is repre- 

 sented by 20 species and subspecies, of which 



6 are from the United States and 14 from Mex- 

 ico and Central America ; all of the latter and 

 two of the United States forms are referred to 

 to the subgenus Cryptotis, leaving only 4 for the 

 subgenus Blarina. Most of the Central Ameri- 

 can and some of the Mexican species are more 

 or less isolated mountain forms, modified from 

 a few formerly more widely dispersed types. 

 Of the 12 new forms here described, 9 are from 

 Mexico, 2 from Florida and 1 from Dismal 

 Swamp, Virginia. 



Mr. Miller's paper relates to the long- tailed 

 shrews of the eastern United States, and ad- 

 mirably clears the way for Dr. Merriam's im- 

 mediately following general synopsis of Ameri- 

 can species of the genus Sorex. At the outset 

 Mr. Miller attacks sundry vexed questions of 

 synonymy resulting from the description of 

 three species of this group by Dr. Richardson, 

 nearly seventy years ago. Fortunately Rich- 

 ardson's types are still extant in the British 

 Museum, and Mr. Miller has recently had, 

 through the kindness of Mr. Oldfield Thomas, 

 the Curator of the Department of Mammals in 

 thq, British Museum, opportunity to carefully 

 study these invaluable types. As a result Rich- 

 ardson's names may now be considered as prop- 

 erly allocated, and we can with some confidence 

 assign names to our shrews ; for until Richard- 

 son's names were settled many later names could 

 only be applied tentatively. Mr. Miller treats 

 at length of 7 species, 1 of which is described 

 as new. 



Dr. Merriam, in his ' Synopsis of the Ameri- 

 can Shrews of the genus Sorex,' recognizes 42 

 species and subspecies, of which 21, or just one- 

 half, are described as new in the present paper. 

 Of this number 34 are referred to Sorex proper, 

 1 to the subgenus Microsorex, 4 to the subgenus 

 Neosorex, and 3 to the subgenus Alophyrax. 

 The shrews of the subgenus Sorex range from 

 the Arctic Circle southward over the continent- 

 at-large, or such parts of it as are congenial to 

 their peculiar needs, to the mountains of Guate- 

 mala; Atophyrax is restricted to the northwest 

 coast region, ranging from western British 

 Columbia to California; Microsorex and Ncosorex 

 occupy a middle transcontinental belt near the 

 northern boundary of the United States, Neo- 

 sorex, however, extending farther southward 



