﻿46 



NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. 



[Xo. 10. 



sides, wliere it shades quickly into the coloi' of the back; inner surfaces 

 of all four legs colored like the belly 5 dorsum of macus aud pes sepia, 

 paler on the inner half; tail clear seal brown dorsally and at ti]), pale 

 smoke gray ventrally, this gray area broad proxunally, but soon narrow- 

 ing to a mere line, which i}ersists to the extreme tip. 



In the worn summer coat the belly is variously discolored with brown- 

 ish aud yellowish, the animal usually, however, remaining sharply and 

 distinctly bicolor. 



Sl'till. — The skull of Sorex paliistris is large and heavily built, Avith 

 the brain case broad and high. Otherwise it does not differ essentially 

 from the skull of 8. araneus or 8. richardsoni. The anterior opening 

 of the infraorbital canal is large and ellii^tical in outline, shari)ly 

 defined on all sides except in front. The i^osterior border is over a 

 point slightly behind the middle of the first molar. Close to the pos- 

 terior border of this opening is the small lachrymal foramen.' 



Teeth. — The teeth of Sorex palustris are large, strong, and heavily 

 pigmented (PI. Y, fig. 1). The molariform teeth do not difier in form 

 from those of IS. araneus and 8. richardsoni^ except that the posterior 

 borders of the upper molars are more extensively excavated, the widest 

 part of the excavation being nearer the inner borders of the teeth. 

 The unicuspid teeth, however, show more obvious differences. The 

 second and third incisors are subequal, the latter slightly the larger. 

 The fourth incisor is less than half the size of the canine, which in 

 turn is distinctly smaller than the second incisor. The premolar is 

 minute but in the tooth row and distinctly pigmented at the tip. 



Measurements. — It happens that very few of the specimens of Sorex 

 lialustris that I have seen were measured in the tlesh. A male from 

 South Edmonton, Alberta: Length, 157 mm.; tail vertebrai, 68 mm.; 

 hind foot, 20 mm. Another male, from Tower, Minn. : Length, 156 mm. ; 

 tail vertebrae, 65 mm..; hind foot, 19 mm. 



SOREX ALBIBARBIS (Cope). 



1862. Xeosorex alhiharhis Cope, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila,, p. 188. (New Hampsliire.) 

 1862. Xeosorex J) fdudtrisYexTill, Proc. 13ost. Soc. Nat. Hist.,IXj p. 164. (Massachusetts.) 

 1892. Sorex alhiharhis Merriam, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, VII, p. 25. 

 1894. Sorex alhiharhis Miller, Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., XXYI, p. 183. (New H^imp- 

 shire and New York.) 



Tyjye locality. — Profile Lake, 'New Hampshire. 



Geographic distribution. — Boreal zone in the eastern United States 

 and Canada from Pennsylvania north at least to Xova Scotia and Que- 

 bec. Specimens examined from Nova Scotia, Quebec (Lac aux Sables), 



^I am somewhat in doubt as to the correct name for this foramen. Parker appar- 

 ently alludes to it in his description of the adult skull Sorex araneus (Phil. Trans. 

 Royal Soc, CLXXVI, 213, 1886) when he says "the canal wall for the infraorbital 

 nerve is itself perforated," though in reality the foramen in question does not open 

 into the infraorbital canal, but on the contrary into a tube lying superficial to the 

 latter and penetrating the skull in the direction of the nasal cavity. 



