90 



NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. 



[No. 38. 



Condylura macroura Harlan ^ and Astromycter prasinatus Harris.^ 

 Both Harlan and Harris based their descriptions upon animals whose 

 tails were in the enlarged winter condition. Harris was further 

 deceived by his specimen being discolored with a shade of green, and 

 proposed the new genus Astromycter to include this animal, though 

 later 3 he returned it to the genus Condylura. 



It is to be remarked that Condylura cristata has comparatively 

 little geographic variation over a wide zonal range; specimens from 

 the Lower Austral Zone, in Georgia and Virginia, are subspecificaily 

 inseparable from those from the Boreal Zone in Quebec and Labra- 

 dor. A very slight increase in size is noticeable toward the northern 

 part of the range of the species, but it is inconstant, and insufficient 

 for subspecific recognition. Occasional local variations appear, but 

 when a large series is examined from any one locahty these prove 

 inconstant, or else crop out in remote localities. Thus, in a series 

 from Digby, Nova Scotia, the skulls have on the average very shghtly 

 higher braincases and more abruptly sloping frontals, but the differ- 

 ence is not constant and can be matched perfectly by specimens from 

 New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Maryland; the same 

 is true of a small postpalatal process present in the majority of skulls 

 in the series from Digby. A specimen from Marlow, Georgia, is an 

 alcoholic from which the broken and imperfect skull has been re- 

 moved for study; it offers no characters by which it can be separated 

 from typical specimens from Pennsylvania. Possibly when larger 

 series of adult specimens are available differences of diagnostic 

 value not now discernible will become apparent. 



The limits of the geographic range of Condylura are not satisfac- 

 torily known. Many pubhshed records of the star-nosed mole have 

 certainly been based upon erroneous identifications. For example, 

 the species is included among the mammals supposed to occur in 

 Oklahoma,^ and Townsend ^ hsts it from " the Territory of the 

 Oregon.'' 



Richardson ^ describes a specimen said to have been taken by 

 Douglas on the banks of the Columbia." Richardson's description 

 clearly indicates that the animal he had in hand was Condylura 

 cristata, but it is almost certain that it was not collected near the 

 banks of the Columbia River. The most westerly known point of 

 the range of the species is in Manitoba, where, according to Seton,' 



1 Harlan. R.^ Fauna Amer., p. 39, 1825. 



2 Harris, T. W., Amer. Journ. Sci. and Arts, vol. 9, p. 400, June, 1825. 



8 Harris, T. W., Boston Journ. Philos. and Arts, vol. 2, p. 582, July, 1825. 



4 Woodhouse, S. W., Report of an Expedition Down the Zuniand Colorado Rivers, by Capt. L. Sitgreaves; 

 Mammals, p. 43, 1854. 



6 Under the names Condylura longicauiata and Condylura macroura. Townsend, J. K., Narrative of 

 Journey across the Rocky Mountains to the Columbia River, p. 313, 1839. 

 6 Under the name Condylura macroura. Richardson, J., Fauna Boreali-Amer., vol. 1, p. 284, 1829. 

 ^ Seton, Ernest Thompson, Life-Histories of Northern Animals, vol. 2, p. 1137, 1909. 



