164 Expedition to the 



Early in October the cabins for winter quarters were com- 

 pleted. Having made arrangements for the subsistence of the 

 party, and being about to return to Washington, Maj. Long 

 issued orders to the officers and gentlemen of the expedition,, 

 for their government during his absence. The following ex- 



subcylindric, of moderate thickness, slightly thicker in the middle, whitish 



beneath 



Length from tip of nose to root of tail, 2 inches 3-8 



of tail, 3-4 



from the upper teeth to tip of nose, 3-20 



Mr. Peale caught this animal in a pitfall, which he had dug for the pur- 

 pose of catching a wolf. It is a female. 



Barton, in his Medical and Physical Journal for 1806, p. 67, says, that, 

 " Sorex minutissimus of Zimmerman, has been discovered in the traos- 

 Mississippi part of the United States, in the country that is watered by the 

 Missouri;" had he reference to this species? 



This Sorex minutissimus. is probably synonymous with S. exilis, to 

 which our specimens cannot be referred, whilst the character attributed 

 to that species, of " tail very thick in the middle," is considered essential. 



2. Sorex brevir .udus. Say. Blackish-plumbeous above, beneath rather 

 lighter; teeth, blackish; tail, short, robust. 



Total length from nose to tip of tail, 4 inches and 5-8 

 of the tail, 1 



from the upper teeth to the tip of nose, 1-8 



Above blackish plumbeous, when viewed from before, silvery plumbeous 

 when viewed from behind; fur dense, rather long; beneath rather paler; 

 head large; eyes very minute; cars white, entirely concealed beneath the 

 fur, aperture very large, with two distinct semisepta, (tragus and antitra- 

 gus?} which are sparsely hairy at tip; rostrum short, with a slightly im- 

 pressed, abbreviated line above; nose livid brown, emarginate; mouth mar- 

 gined with whitish and with sparse, short hairs; teeth piceous-black at tip; 

 feet, white, the second, third, and fourth toes subequal, the first and fifth 

 shorter, the former rather shortest, anterior with but very few hairs, nearly 

 naked; nails nearly as long as the toes; tail wiih rather sparse hairs, near- 

 ly of equal diameter but slightly thickest in the middle, depressed, and 

 nearly as long as the posterior feet. 



This specimen, which is a male, closely resembles S. parvus, but it is 

 much larger, the head is proportionally much larger and more elongated; 

 the tail more robust, and the inferior anterior pair of incisores are simi- 

 lar to those of S. conslrictus, fig. 7, pi. 15, of the Mem. du. Mus. by Mr. 

 Geoffroy St. Hilaire. The incisors of the superior jaw, are twelve in num- 

 ber, in a cranium belonging to this species, five on each side in addition to 

 the two larger anterior ones, the posterior tooth of the lateral ones is small- 

 est. 



May not this be the animal mentioned by the late professor Barton in 

 his Medical and Physical Journal, for March, 18 6, wh'ch, lie says, " may 

 be called the black shrew? 1 ' I do not know that tli black shrew has ever 

 received any further notice, unless it is the same sneeies to which Mr. Ord 

 has applied the name of Sorex niger. 



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