1915.] 



CONDYLUEA CRISTATA. 



89 



habitat. Pennant, ^ in 1771, described two moles under the names 

 Radiated Mole" and Long-tailed Mole"; the former he correctly 

 considered to be the Sorex cristatus of Linngeus; his long-tailed species 

 must also be referred to Condylura cristata since he describes it as a 

 mole with a radiated nose and a tail two inches long, a description 

 which applies to no other mammal. Pennant's description of the 

 long-tailed mole was probably based upon either a young or a summer 

 specimen in which the diameter of the tail was minimum ; as early as 

 1777 this became the basis for two Latin binomials, Talpa caudata 

 Zimmermann ^ and Talpa longicaudata Erxleben.^ The writer has 

 been unable to verify the name Talpa canadensis of De La Faille. 

 Shaw * renamed Sorex cristatus Linnaeus, calling it Talpa radiata; 

 he also recognized Talpa longicaudataj, but in his remarks under 

 Talpa radiata states: '^It is, perhaps, in reality no other than a 

 variety of the former species (i. e. T. longicaudata), or a sexual 

 difference." ^ Shaw ^ again renamed the species when he confused 

 a figure and description of it, given by De La Faille, with the genus 

 Sorex, and called it Sorex radiatus. That Shaw should thus have 

 been misled is strange, since he writes: 



One would be inclined to think that the remarkable moniliform appearance of the 

 tail in this animal, as exhibited in M. de la Faille's figure, may be partly owing to the 

 contraction of the interstices of the joints in drying. 



It is evidently allied to the radiated Mole, bat if the figure given by M. de la Faille 

 be accurate, must surely be a very distinct speciesJ 



Schinz,^ when substitutuig the generic name Talpasorex for Con- 

 dylura, used the name Condylura Jissipes in synonymy under Talpa- 

 sorex cristatus; it seems probable that the name Jissipes had been 

 used in literature previous to this, but the present writer has been 

 unable to find an earlier usage. Schinz (loc. cit.) also placed the 

 names Talpa Jlava and Talpa purpurascens in synonymy under 

 Talpasorex cristatus; this was probably purely an error on his part, 

 since there is nothing in the original descriptions of Talpa jlava 

 Zimmermann and Talpa purpurascens Shaw, nor in subsequent 

 descriptions of these forms, which would lead one to confuse either 

 with Condylura lUiger; the former name is a synonym of Scalopus a. 

 aguaticus (Linnasus), the latter of Talpa europxa Lumaeus. In 1825, 

 two other names were proposed which apply to the star-nosed mole — 



1 Pennant, T., Quadrapeds, 1771. The present writer has not seen this work but presumes the descrip- 

 tions are essentially the same as those in Pennant's History of Quadrupeds, ed.3, vol. 2, p. 232, pi. 90, 1793. 



2 Zimmermann, E. A. W., Spec. Zool. Geog., p. 497, 1777. 

 8 Erxleben, J. C. P., Syst. Reg. Anim., p. 118, 1777. 



< Shaw, George, Gen. Zool., Mamm., vol. 1, p. 523, 1800. 

 6 Shaw, loc. cit., p. 524. 

 6 Shaw, loc. cit., p. 531. 

 f Shaw, loc. cit., p. 632. 



8 Schinz, H. H., Cuvier's Thierreich, vol. 1, p. 191, 1821. 



