﻿40 



NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. 



[^^"o. 10. 



(19 uiDi.), is evidently an error, since it is about right for a Slirew the 

 size of Sorex alhiharhis, and can apply to no true Sorex known from the 

 eastern United States. 



Although De Kay's account of Otisorex platyrhinus is so faulty as to 

 make the identification of his animal a matter of uncertainty, the 

 description published by Linsley ^ of a specimen seen and named by 

 De Kay is enough ^ to fix the name on the animal already called Sorex 

 personatus by Isidore Geoffroy Saint Hilaire. 



Sorex longirostris. — In 1837 Bachman described a Shrew from the 

 swamps of the Santee River, South Carolina.'^ This animal he named 

 Sorex longirostris. Although there is nothing in Bachman's long ac- 

 count by which the animal can be positively identified, the name may 

 be applied to a very distinct species of Shrew occurring in the Southern 

 States. Efforts to secure topotypes of Sorex longirostris have thus far 

 failed, and the nearest point to the type locality from which specimens 

 are known is Bertie County, 0. It is very unlikely, however, that 

 a different Shrew occurs in the Santee region. 



This Shrew is now recognized for the first time since Bachman de- 

 scribed it, unless the Sorex personatus of Baird was the same. The 

 type of Baird's personatus is a skin without skull of an apparently im- 

 mature Shrew taken near Washington, D. 0. The specimen is in such 

 condition as to be wholly unidentifiable, and nothing is known about 

 the Long-tailed Shrews that occur in the vicinity. 



Sorex personatus. — Isidore Geoffroy Saint Hilaire described in 1827,'^ 

 a Shrew which he called Sorex personatus, No type locality is given, 

 but the original specimen Avas collected by Milbert in the United States, 

 IDOSsibly in New York. ^ The descrii^tion is sufficiently accurate to show 

 that the animal was the smaller common Long-tailed Shrew of the 

 eastern United States. 



A few months later Richardson redescribed the species as Sorex for- 

 steri.^ The type in the British Musuem has been mounted, but is 

 now kept as a skin. The fur has a peculiar brownish-fulvous cast, the 



'Sill. Am. Jonr. Sci., XLIII, 346. 



2 This beautiful little quadruped was taken in a decayed apple-tree log iu Strat- 

 ford January 22, 1840. Total length, 4 inches [101.6 mm.] ; body and head, 2.5 inches 

 [63.5 mm.]; * * * length of tail, 1.5 inches [38 mm.]; * * * height of ear, 

 .1 inch [2.5 mm.] ; * * * total weight of animal, 27 grains. Color: Upper parts 

 dark, reddish brown ; nose and tail, upper side dull red, under parts dark gray or light 

 mouse colored; end of tail a pencil of black hair; feet and legs white, or pale ilesh 

 color; * * * length of hind feet to elbow, 5; * * " orifice of the ear very 

 large and curiously folded, being nearly 3 lines [6.25 mm.] across. It was named by 

 Dr. De Kay, to whom I sent it, S. platyrhinclius, and he describes it as a subgenus, 

 Otisorex * * * and he is the least and most delicate mammiferous quadruped I 

 ever beheld. 



3 Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., VII, Part II, p. 270, PI. XXIII, tig. 2. 

 -J Mem. Mus. d'Hist. Nat., Paris, XV, p. 122. 



"'Milbert collected the" type of Bkinichthys cataractw Cuv. and. Val. at Niagara Falls, 

 'N. Y. 



« Zool. Jour., Ill, p. 516, Jan. to Apr., 1828. 



