178 . 



ing no nodes or irregularities caused by the vertebraB, as the name Con- 

 dylura would indicate. Ordinarily, it is about one-fifth of an inch in its 

 greatest thickness, but during the breeding season it grows to half an 

 inch or more in diameter, owing to the deposition of fat under the 

 skin. 



The pelage is of two kinds of hair; a dark plumbeous basal ur, with 

 sooty tips, giving the animal a uniformly dark- brown or blackish tinge, 

 and coarser hairs, the longest measuring half an inch, thickly inter- 

 spersed with the basal hair. The fur is not as fine as in Scalops, and is- 

 without the lustrous gloss of the Common Mole. 



The hands have a fringe of hair'encircling the entire palm ; the whole 

 of the under surface and most of the upper is without hairs and closely 

 covered with a pavement of plates, of a brownish color, larger near the 

 outer margin above, but of nearly uniform size below. Both surfaces of 

 the hind feet have a similar coating of plates. 



The hind feet are narrower than the fioat, but are considerably longer. 

 On both fore and hind feet the fingers and claws decrease regularly from^ 

 the fourth to the first. The front feet are webbed between the basal 

 joints. 



The outer edge of the under' surface of each front toe is produced, form- 

 ing lacinated horny processes ; these are not found on the hind feet; 

 the exact use of these peculiar processes, as of the nasal fringes so char- 

 acteristic of this genus, are not at present known. 



The skull is longer and slenderer than in allied moles; the cranium is 

 almost as high as broad ; the auditory openings large and conspicuous as 

 in the shrews; the posterior edge of the palate has a notch extending ta 

 the per ultimate molar. 



The upper incisors are axelike, and project nearly horizontally; those 

 of Opposite sides lie near together, forming the two halves of a kind of 

 spoon. After these comes a slender, vertical, thread-like incisor, which 

 has in immediate contact a long, canine-like incisor, having a small spur 

 on its outer back edge; this is followed, after a considerable diastema, by 

 a diminutive canine with a single fang, to which succeed three com- 

 pressed molars having double fangs, a large-pointed central lobe, and 

 two basal ones. There is no interval between the last premolar and the 

 molars; the anterior premolars, the canine, and the third incisor are 

 separated from each other. 



In the lower jaw, which is very delicate, the premolars are nearly 

 similar to the upper ones in form and position; the canine is large and 

 distinct, with posterior basal fang; the three incisors are directed longi- 

 tudinally forward, the two inner ones with their fellows of the opposite 



