﻿18 



NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. 



[No. 10. 



IlaMtat.—Chie^y open fields and meadows. 



General characters. — Smallest of the United States species; cranium 

 li^'lit and Sorex-Wke. 



Color. — Upper parts varying from sepia to dark hair-brown, darker 

 in winter pelage; under parts asb gray ; tail bicolor, each side concolor 

 with body. Some specimens (immature?) are nearly iron gray, lacking 

 the sepia, in this respect resembling immature specimens of floridana. 



Cranial and dental characters. — Skull small, about equaling herland- 

 ieri, but decidedly smaller than floridana. Last upper unicuspid not 

 usually visible from outside; second unicuspid shorter than in herland- 

 ieri (pi. 3, fig. 2); upper molars (m^ and m^) deeply excavated behind 

 (pi. 3, fig. 13), thus differing from both floridana and herlandieri which 

 are only slightly concave. 



Measurements (taken in flesh). — Average of 13 specimens from type 

 locality (Blair, Nebr.): Total length, 79 mm.; tail vertebrae, 10 mm.; 

 hind foot, 10.6 mm. Average of 25 from Ealeigh, 0. : ^ Total length, 

 75 mm.; tail vertebrae, 16.4 mm.; hind foot, 10.6 mm. One specimen 

 from Washington, Miss. : Total length, 80 mm.; tail vertebrae, 18 mm.; 

 hind foot, 11 mm. 



General remarlis. — Blarina parva is the smallest of the Short- tailed 

 Shrews known from the United States. Specimens from New Jersey, 

 and from the coast region of southern South Carolina and Georgia, are 

 somewhat larger thcin the typical form. Thus specimens from Tuck- 

 erton, N. J., Georgetown, S. C., and Riceboro, Ga., are appreciably 

 larger than those from Raleigh, N. C. But they agree with tTue parva 

 in the extent and depth of color of the chestnut tips of the teeth and 

 in the deep excavation of the molars posteriorly, thus showing no 

 approach toward B. floridana. 



Specimens examined. — Total number, 114, from the following localities: 



Nebraska: Blair (type locality), 13. 



Indiana: Brookville, 2; Irvington, 2; Terre Haute, 2; Vigo County, 2; Putnam 

 County, 2. 



Ohio: Garrettsville, 1. 



New Jersey : Tuckerton, 3. 



Maryland: Laurel, 1; Sandy Spring, 19. 



District of Columbia: Washington, 1. 



Virginia: Dismal Swamp, 1. 



North Carolina: Raleigh, 46; Bertie County, 5. 



South Carolina: Georgetown, 1. 



Georgia: Riceboro, 4. 



Alabama: Mobile, 1. 



Mississippi: Washington, 1. 



Louisiana: Iberia Parish, 1. 



Texas: Gainesville, 5j Del Rio, 1. 



'For these measurements I am indebted to the collectors, H. H. and C. S. Brimley, 

 of Raleigh. 



