82 Jeffrey C. Beane 



mole activity, but no serious collecting efforts have yet been undertaken 

 there. 



Wake Co.: 1.25 mi. SW Millbrook (= 4.0 mi. N.NE center Raleigh), 

 4001 Quail Hollow Drive along Big Branch. Dr. Wesley E. Kloos, a 

 genetics professor at North Carolina State University, reported (personal 

 communication, NCSM files) having captured two specimens in his 

 back yard between 1989 and 1991, and released both in nearby Eastgate 

 City Park. A photograph sent to the North Carolina State Museum, of 

 Kloos holding one of the captured animals, was too small and blurred 

 for positive identification. Frequent pitfall trapping on the site during 

 1992-1993 yielded no specimens. 



Although neither Kloos nor Schneider is a mammalogist, both 

 are scientifically oriented individuals, and each seemed certain of the 

 animals's identity. The star-nosed mole is certainly a difficult animal 

 to misidentify. Their reports are therefore included here, and are probably 

 valid, although they remain unverified, and are accompanied by question 

 marks on the distribution map. Except for the Surry County record, 

 and the Mecklenburg County sight record by Brown, they represent 

 the only reports from the Piedmont region of the state. However, the 

 records from Polk and Rutherford counties (NCSM 1237 and 6336, 

 respectively) are very near the eastern edge of the escarpment, and 

 the sight record of burrows and mounds from West End in Moore 

 County (Lee 1987) is at the extreme inner edge of the Coastal Plain. 



The locality for the Surry County specimen (NCSM 7744) lies 

 just off the Blue Ridge escarpment in the extreme western Piedmont, 

 and is the first specimen-supported record for that geographic province 

 in the state. The specimen was found dead along a bog at the edge of 

 a hayfield. Evidence of considerable mole activity was apparent at 

 this site during 1994 and 1995 (personal observation), and the landowners 

 reported that these moles were commonly killed by house cats on the 

 property, as was possibly the case with this specimen (Ann B. Somers, 

 personal communication). 



The specimens from Ashe, Brunswick, Dare, Hoke, Jackson, and 

 Rutherford counties also represent new county records. The sight records 

 for Bladen, McDowell, Mecklenburg, Randolph, and Wake counties, 

 though not supported by specimens, represent previously unpublished 

 county records as well (see Lee et al. 1982, Webster 1987). 



DISCUSSION 

 The range of the star-nosed mole overlaps that of the eastern 

 mole (Scalopus aquaticus) throughout North Carolina, and that of the 

 hairy-tailed mole (Parascalops breweri) in the Mountains. The hairy- 



