﻿Dec. 1895.] 



BLARINA MEXICANA. 



23 



belt at Jico, Vera Cruz, directly east of tlie Valley of Mexico, is much 

 closer and more perplexing. The Jico animal agrees with true tropi- 

 calis in coloration, but is more or less intermediate in cranial and dental 

 characters. It differs from soricina in smaller third and fourth unicus- 

 pids (the antero-posterior diameter of third much reduced), less deeply 

 excavated premolar, and absence of excavation in first upper true 

 molar. 



Mr. Nelson caught three of these small Blarinas under the banks of a 

 weedy ditch close to the railway station at Tlalpam. 



BLARINA OBSCURA sp. nov. 



Tyjje from Tulancingo, Hidalgo, Mexico (altitude, 8,500 feet). No. 55634, 9 yg. ad,, 

 U. S. Nat. Mus., Department of Agriculture collection. Collected August 27, 1893, 

 by E. W. Nelson. Original number, 5377. 



Oeneral cliaracters. — Similar to B. mexicana^ but smaller and decid- 

 edly paler. 



Color. — Upper parts dark plumbeous, overlaid by sex^ia, becoming 

 dusky over the rump; under i^arts paler plumbeous, tipped with brown- 

 ish ; sides of nose dusky. 



Cranial and dental cliaracters. — Similar to B. mexicana, but much 

 smaller; rostrum and teeth nearly the same size in both, but postpalatal 

 part of cranium much smaller and shorter; first, second, and third 

 unicuspidate teeth broad at base, with well-developed inner cusplet; 

 large upper premolar only slightly concave behind and with antero- 

 internal angle and cusp well marked. 



Measurements (taken in flesh). — Type: Total length, 89 mm.; tail ver- 

 tebrae, 24 mm.; hind foot, 13 mm. Average of 2 specimens from type 

 locality : Total length, 92 mm. ; tail vertebrae, 25 mm. ; hind foot, 13 mm. 



Oeneral remarks. — Only two specimens of this new Blarina were 

 obtained by Mr. Nelson. They were caught in fir woods on the moun- 

 tains near Tulancingo, at an altitude of 8,o00 feet, and were living in 

 small runways under the shelter of old logs. 



BLARINA MEXICANA i Baird. Mexican Blarina. 

 PI. I, fig. 11. 



1877. Blarina (Soriciscns) mexicana (Baird MS.) Cones, Precursory Notes, Am. Insect- 

 ivorous Mammals, May, 1877, 652-653. (From Jalapa, Mexico.) 

 1880. Blarina mexicana Alston, Biologia Centrali-Americana, Mammalia, Feb. 1880, 57. 



Type /ocrtZ^/?/.— Jalapa, Vera Oruz, Mexico. (No. f f If, U. S. Nat. Mus.) 



Geographic distribution. — Tropical fauna of southeastern Mexico in 

 States of Vera Cruz and Oaxaca. 



General characters. — Size medium (total length, about 100 mm.; hind 

 loot, 13 mm.); coloration very dark. 



iTbis animal is probably not the same as Blaria mexicana Gray, List of Osteo- 

 logical Specimens in British Museum, 1817, pp. xi and 23, from Ooban, South America 

 = Coban, Guatemala. The latter is a nomen nudum. 



