60 



NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. 



[No. ?.8. 



labeled ''Banks of the Columbia River, May 9, 1835." The latter 

 specimen is a partial albuio, having a narrow, irregular white streak 

 extending from chin to abdomen, and another from forehead to sno'dt; 

 this specimen (No. 449) is now in the Academy of Natural Sciences 

 of Philadelphia, where sometime in later years it was marked ''Type 

 of Scalops townsendiiJ' It is not the type, since Baohman's descrip- 

 tion was based in part if not primarily on the specimen submitted 

 by NuttaU; it may well be considered a cotype, however, since 

 Bachman does not designate a type; that he considered the two 

 specimens one and the same species is evident in his remark: ''I 

 subsequently received from Mr. Townsend another specimen, a little 

 larger in size, which I presume to be a mere variety, although very 

 singularly marked" (loc. cit., p. 58). This same abnormal specimen 

 became, in 1854, the type of Talpa tsdniata Le Conte. Cassm ex- 

 hibited and described a mole which he called ^'Scalops metdllescens'^ 

 before the Philadelphia Academy in 1853, but in the pubhshed 

 account ^ of his talk and exhibition, which appeared the next year, 

 the name "Scalops metallescens^' occurs without any description. 

 Subsequently, however, Cassin^ described the animal under the 

 name "Scalops xneus;'' the type ^ is now in the United States 

 National Museum. Cassin states: ''In its dentition and otherwise it 

 is a strict congener of Scalops townsendiij but is much smaller and of 

 a different color. Its black claws are especially remarkable, and dis- 

 tinguish it from all other species of the genus" (loc. cit.). Unfor- 

 tunately the skuU has been lost, but the skin seems to show that it 

 is of a rather young specimen of Seapanus townsendii which has been 

 shrunk and discolored by some chemical, possibly corrosive subli- 

 mate. The general tone of color of the back is between Brussels 

 brown and Prout's brown; the underparte are mostly buckthorn 

 brown, and on chin and ankles is a suspicious tinge of sulphine 

 yellow. The claws are heavy as in townsendii and do not indicate 

 specific relationship with S. orarius; both claws and soles of the feet 

 are black, which might readily be accounted for by the presence of 

 mercuric sulphid from the combination of carbon bisulphid and 

 corrosive subhmate used in preserving specimens. 



Townsend's mole, though showing considerable individual vari- 

 ation in size and in proportions and shape of skull, is subject to very 

 httle geographic variation. In a large series of skulls from PuyaUup, 

 Wash., are four which have supernumerary premolars. Three of 

 these have each an extra premolar between the second and third 

 premolars of the right mandible; the other specimen has a super- 

 numerary tooth between the second and third premolars of the left 



1 Cassin, J., Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelpiiia, vol. 6, 1853, p. 242, 1854. 



2 Cassin, loc. cit., p. 299, 1854. 



8 No. 3725 ,U. S. Nat. Mus., skin without skull; collected in Oregon, by "U. S. Exploring Expedition," 



