﻿32 



NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. 



[No. 10. 



HISTORY AND NOMENCLATURE, 



The genus N'otiosorex is exceptionally free from complications of 

 nomenclature and synonymy. It was described and named by Baird in 

 1861, but Avas not published until 1877, when Coues incorporated it, 

 along with other of Baird's manuscript descriptions, in his Precursory 

 Notes on American Insectivorous Mammals.^ The original type species 

 was described by Baird under the name Sorex (Xotiosorex) craivfordi, 

 and came from Fort Bliss, K Mex. (practically El Paso, Tex.). In the 

 same publication Coues described a specimen from Mazatlan, Mexico, as 

 a new species and named it Sorex {Notiosorex) evotis. No other species 

 have been described, and there are no synonyms, unless evotis should 

 prove a synonym of crawfordi. 



Notiosorex was proposed as a subgenus of Sorex. It is accorded ful, 

 generic rank by Dobson and by Flower and Lydekker. It is closely 

 related to the Eurasian genus Crocidura, but the skull is much broader 

 and flatter posteriorly. It is doubtful if -the differences that separate 

 it from Crocidura are of more than subgeneric weight. 



NOTIOSOREX CRAWFORDI Baird. 



Sorex (Notiosorex) crawfordi Baird, Bull. U. S. Geol. and Geog. Siirv., Ill, 1877, 651- 

 652. (From Fort Bliss, N. Mex.). Thomas, Proc. Zool. See. London, 1888, 444. 

 (From San Diego, Duval County, Tex.). 



Type from near Fort Bliss, New Mexico (practically El Paso, Texas). (No. Hff-, U. 

 S. Nat. Mus.) 



Geographic distribution, — Parts of Lower Sonoran zone from eastern 

 Texas to southern Galifornia, and thence southward to the cape region 

 of the peninsula of Lower California. 



General characters. — Size small, about equaling Blarina parva; ears 

 large for a Shrew, protruding conspicuously beyond the fur; hind feet 

 and tail short, the latter about half the length of the body without the 

 head; color iDlumbeous. 



Color. — Upper parts i^lumbeous (near the 'olive gray' of Ridgway); 

 under parts whitish; tail bicolor, each side concolor with body. 



Cranial and dental characters. — The cranial and dental characters 

 have been described in the generic diagnosis. The first and second 

 unicuspids are large and subequal; the third also is large, consider- 

 ably more than half the second. Judging from Dobson's figure of the 

 teeth of evotis (which he calls crawfordi: Mon. lusectivora, Part III, 

 1890, PI. XXIII, expl.) those of crawfordi are less crowded. The large 

 upper premolar and molars are rather deeply excavated i)OSteriorly, 

 especially the latter. 



Measurements of type specimen (alcoholic, as recorded by Goues, con- 

 verted into millimeters). — Head and body, 48 mm.; tail vertebrae, 28 

 mm.; hind foot, 10 mm. An alcoholic specimen in the Department col- 

 lection (Xo. 31532) from San Diego, Tex., measures: Total length, 



1 Bull. U. S. Geol. and Geog. Surv., Ill, No. 3, 1877, 646. 



