﻿38 



NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. 



[No 10. 



In 1892, however, Dr. Merriaiii enumerated both Sore.r albibarhis and 

 S. palusfris among- tlie mammals of the boreal zoue,' while two years 

 later the species was again recorded from Profile Lake, Kew Hampshire, 

 and also from Essex County, N. Y.^ Still more recently Mr. Rhoads 

 has taken 8. albibarbis in Peunsylvania.^ 



Sorex riehardsoni. — The American representative of Sorex araneus 

 was discovered by Forster, avIio in 1772 recorded the species from Hud- 

 son Bay. Although Forster called the animal Sore.r araneus he noticed 

 that it had a blacker back and brighter colored sides than the common 

 European Shrew. 



The si)ecies was next described by Richardson m the Fauna Boreali- 

 Americana (1829). Here it was referred with some hesitation to Sortx 

 parvus Say, a Shrew which is not even congeneric with 8. riehardsoni. 

 The specimen on which Richardson based his descriptiou of Sorex 

 parvus is in the British Museum, and though faded and dingy is per- 

 fectly identifiable. The color x)atterii can still be distinctly seen, while 

 in size it agrees exactly with a specimen from Elk River, Minnesota. 



In 1837 Bachmaii, who already felt convinced that the Shrews called 

 Sorex parvus by Richardson and Say were not the same, received a speci- 

 men from Mr. William Cooper, on the strength of which he named 

 Richardson's animal Sorex riehardsoni. Cooper's specimen came from 

 the Northwest Territory, which in the early thirties embraced the pres- 

 ent States of Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, northern Illinois, and the 

 northern peninsula of Michigan. As the Sorex ])arvus of Richardson 

 is known to occur in this region, and as nothing in Bacliman's descrip. 

 tion points to any other animal, the propriety of applying to it the 

 name riehardsoni is hardly open to question, though there is the possi- 

 bility that the Cooper specimen was really S. funieus. 



The animal was not noticed again until the year 1857, when Baird 

 described a specimen m full winter coat as a new species under the 

 name Sorex pachyur us. The Sorex riehardsoni of Baird is a pale, worn 

 summer specimen of S. fumeus. 



The most recent mention of Sorex riehardsoni is by Dobson, who 

 figures the teeth for the first time. Dobson, like Forster, referred the 

 animal to Sorex vulgaris \ = S. araneus], the species to which it is cer- 

 tainly most nearly allied. 



Sorex fumeus. — The large slaty-plumbeous Shrew characteristic of the 

 Canadian fauna Avas first described by Baird in 1857. Baird had two 

 specimens, one from Carlisle, Pa., and the other from Racine, Wis. 

 These he identified respectively as Sorex forsferi [ = S. personatus] and 

 Sorex riehardsoui, species widely different from each other and from 

 Sorex fumeus. Both specimens are now in the National JMuseum. The 

 type of Baird's forsteri is in the dark autumnal or winter pelage, and 



1 Proc. Biol. 8oc. Washington, YII, p. 25, 1892. 



2 Miller, Proc. Bost. Soc. Xat. Plist., XXVI, p. 183, 1894. 

 ^Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., Pliila. 1894, 395, Jan., 1895. 



