Star-Nosed Mole of America. 



447 



nails formed for digging ; those behind slender and weak. The 

 generic name is from the Greek (Jcondule) a swelling, and {pura) 

 a tail, in allusion to the swollen state of the tail of this animal 

 sometimes observed. Only one species of this remarkable genus 

 is known, which is the following : — 



CoNDYLURA Ceistata. (Linn.) 

 Synonymes. 



SoNERE Cristata, Linn, Ed. 12, p. 73. 



Talpa Longicaudata. Pennant's Hist. Quad., Vol 2, p. 232, 



CoNDYLURA LoNGicAUDATA. Richardson, Fauna, p. 13. 



C: MACROURA. " id. p. 234. 



C CRISTATA. Audubon & Bachman, Vol. 2, p. 139. 



The length of the star-nosed mole from the point of the nose 

 to the root of the tail is about 5 inches, length of tail three inches, 

 from heel to end of claw -J of an inch, breadth of palm |. The 

 head is long pointed and terminated in a snout which, at its ex- 

 tremity is surrounded by a fringe of about twenty cartilaginous 

 points. The body is cylindrical, the neck short, and the eyes 

 small. The moustaches are few and short. There is an orifice 

 in place of an external ear, which does not project through the 

 skin. The fore feet are longer than those of the common Ameri- 

 can shrew mole, the palms destitute of hairs, but covered with 

 scales ; claws, flattened, sharp, channelled beneath ; hind extremi- 

 ties longer than the fore ones, placed far back ; feet nearly naked, 

 scaly; tail sub-cylindiical, sparingly covered with coarse hair. 

 The fur is brownish black ; some of the specimens have dark 

 brown feet, others pale ashy brown or even white. 



This animal is a harmless little creature, subsisting on insects, 

 worms and larvae of various kinds. According to Dr. Godman it 

 prefers the banks of small streams or swampy land, where in many 

 places the burrows are so numerous that " it is scarcely possible 



