648 BULLETIN UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURTEY. 



terminal pencil. External ears small, invisible on ordinary inspection, 

 and peculiarly constructed ; the auricle, as well as other parts, being 

 directed forward to close the meatus, leaving no opening or appearance 

 of a concavity of auricle. Fore feet broad, large in comparison with the 

 hinder ones, the palms naked, the claws enlarged and somewhat fos- 

 sorial, longer than the hind claws. Hind feet very small comparatively, 

 the soles granular and pluri-tnberculate, the heels hairy, excepting 

 usually a very narrow central strip. Body stout; size variable, the 

 species ranging from much the largest to the smallest of American 

 Shrews; coloration either uniform or sharply bicolor. 



The short-tailed or so-called "earless" Shrews of America constitute 

 a strongly marked group not represented at all in the Old World. They 

 are readily recognized by the characters of the tail and ears ; while the 

 skull and teeth furnish equally or more satisfactory means of disorimiua- 

 tion from any other genus of Soricidce. In the foregoing diagnosis I only 

 present the more salient cranial and dental characters, serving for 

 ready determination, omitting here, as elsewhere in tliis paper, many 

 details, which, however necessary in full description, would, if here intro- 

 duced, tend to obscure the characters I wish to set forth prominently. 



Isfevertheless, I am obliged to define the genus somewhat loosely, 

 owing to the dissimilarity of the two types of form it covers. So far 

 from there being only one species of Blarina, as Mr. Allen has sought 

 to maintain, there are a number of them, representing two subgenera as 

 distinct as any of those just established in the genus of Sorex, if not 

 more so. Erroneous statements respecting the ears, and miscounts of 

 the number of the teeth, which have been rated as many as 34 and even 

 36, have aleady caused the erection of several groundless genera, such 

 as Anotus and Cryptotis ; but all these, as Baird has remarked, are 

 strictly synonymous with Blarina of Gray or Brachysorex of Duvernoy, 

 and belong to the section with 32 teeth represented by jB. talpoides. 

 The other section, of 30 teeth, properly characterized by Baird in 1857, 

 but not hitherto named, I propose to call Soriciscus. It is the only 

 known representative of the genus in Mexico and Central America. 



a. Subgenus Blaeina, Gray (emend.). 



Chars, subg. — Teeth 32 {\^) ; upper unicuspids 5 ; the two anterior 

 ones largest, subequal to each other, exceeding in size the hook of the 

 incisor ; next two abruptly smaller, subequal to each other ; last one 

 smaller still, very minute, scarcely or not visible externally ; three last 

 appearing crowded together. Upper incisor with the posterior hook 

 reduced to a mere rectangular lobe, much smaller than the succeeding 

 tooth. Lower incisor reaching back below the first molar, so that two 

 teeth and part of a third are above it. Skull comparatively massive 

 with well developed lambdoidal and sagittal crests, the former defining 

 an occipital plane. Very little interorbital constriction, and rostral 

 part of skull moderately tapering, not nearly so attenuate as in Sorex. 



