246 



NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. 



r NO. 27. 



In the Xational Museum series of shrews I find a number of speci- 

 mens of this species from the region now under review^ and wnll refer 

 to them briefly. A skin taken at Portage La Loche by B. 11. Ross, 

 August 5, 1860, is chiefly interesting as from a locality now seldom 

 visited. Several alcoholic specimens furnish a record for Fort Reso- 

 lution, Avhere w^e did not detect it. One was taken at Buffalo River. 

 Great Slave Lake, July 5 (probably 1860), by B. R. Ross, who also 

 collected one at Fort SimjDSon in December, 1860. Another w-as taken 

 at Big Island, Great Slave Lake, by John Reid. 



Allen has recorded three specimens taken at Fort Norman by A. J. 

 Stone, September 15 to 17, 1898." 



Sorex sphagnicola^ described by Coues from Fort Liard or vicin- 

 ity,^ and which has been more or less doubtfully referred to by 

 authors in recent years as distinct from S. richardsoni^ is beyond all 

 doubt identical with this species. I have recently made a careful 

 comparison betw^een the tyjDC of aS'. sjyhagnicola and our large series 

 of richardsoni^ some of wdiich are from the same general region, as 

 shown above. The type of Sorex sphagnicola now^ consists merely of 

 fragments of a skin, the head and nape and the hinder third, inchid- 

 ing the hind feet and tail. It was plainly taken in summer and 

 was molting, a condition which probably accounts for the alleged 

 peculiarities of the color pattern which have been supposed to charac- 

 terize this species. When compared with summer skins of aS'. inch- 

 ardsoni the agreement is very close. The color of the head and neck 

 is exactly matched in some specimens of richardsoni from Great 

 Slave Lake; the color of the hinder parts match almost equall}^ Avell, 

 the type of sphagnicola being just appreciably darker than ordinary 

 summer specimens of richardsoni. The feet and tail agree precisely 

 in size, and, allowing a little for the fading of the type, in color. 

 Doctor Merriam has compared this specimen and agrees Avith me that 

 S. sphagnicola must be considered a synom^m of S. richardsoni. 



Sorex tundrensis Merriam. Tundra Shrew^ ^ 

 In the collection of shrews in the Xational Museum I find about ^ 

 25 specimens of this species from several localities in the lower Mac- ; 

 kenzie region, thus materially extending its previously recorded ^ 

 range. A number of specimens w-ere brought to MacFarlane by the 

 Eskimo from the mouth of the Anderson and the Arctic coast in that I 

 quarter in 1862, 1863, and the winter of 1865-66. There are several ' 

 also from Fort Anderson taken by MacFarlane, one from Peel River 

 (Fort McPherson) taken by C. P. Gaudet, and one or two from the ^ 

 mouth of Porcupine River collected by Kennicott. In addition to ^ 



« Bull Am. Mils. Nat. Hist., XIX, p. 566, 1903. i 

 *Bull. U. S. Geol. and Geog. Survey Terr., Ill, Xo. 3, p. 650, 1877. 



