﻿Dec . 1895.] 



THE SUBGENUS BLARINA. 



9 



Yalley of Mexico, while not strictly a mountairi form, is clearly an 

 offslioot from the tropical B. tropicalis. 



In the United States the only species that passes beyond the Austral 

 region is hreviccmda. It penetrates the southern edge of the Boreal 

 zone along the northern limit of its range, and ascends the higher 

 mountains of Korth Carolina and Tennessee to the same zone. 



In southern Mexico some of the high mountains have been so long 

 isolated that the species of Blarina inhabiting them have become dif- 

 ferentiated into local races or rei)resentative species. Thus the colo- 

 nies of the widely diffused B. mexicana type inhabiting mountains near 

 Oaxaca, Ozolotepec, and Ohilpanciugo, have developed peculiarities by 

 which each may be recognized from the others and also from the typical 

 form from Vera Oruz. Similarly B. alticola, of Mount Popocata]3etl 

 and other high mountains about the Yalley of Mexico, is represented 

 on Mount ZempoaltepeCj Oaxaca, by a closely allied species, B. fossor. 



NUMBER OF SPECIMENS OF EACH SPECIES EXAMINED. 



Subgenus Blarina : 



Blarina hrevicauda 436 



carolinensis 89 



2)eninsula' 7 



telmalcstes 1 



Subgenus Cryptotis: 



Blarina parva 114 



floridana 4 



herlandicri 8 



tropical is 25 



soricina 3 



ohsciira 2 



Subgenus Cryptotis — Continued. 



Blarina mexicana 110 



goldmani 5 



peregrina 25 



machetes 7 



nelsoni 11 



alticola. 10 



fossor 5 



magna 2 



nigrescens 1 



oropliila 1 



Subgenus BLARINA Grav. 



1838. Blarina (subgenus of Sorex) Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. London 1837 (June, 1838), 



124. Type, Sorex talpoides Gapper = S. hrevicaudus Say. 

 1842. Blarina (full genus) Lesson, Nouv. Tableau Mammif., 1842, 89. 



1842. Brachysorex (subgenus) Duvernoy, Mag. de ZooL, 2d ser., IV, 1842, 37-41. 



Type, Sorex Irericauda Say. (Specimen from New Harmony, Ind., and some- 

 what intermediate between hrevicauda and carolinensis.) 



1843. Blaria Gray, List of Spec. Mammalia British Mus., 1843, XXI j List of Osteol. 



Spec, British Mus., 1847, XI, 23. 

 1848. Talposorex Pomel, Archiv. Sci. Phys. and Nat. Geneve, IX, 1848, 248. (Type, 



Sorex carolinensis Dekay = S. hrevicaudus Say.) Not Talpasorex Lesson, 1827. 

 1848. Galcmys Pomel, Ibid., IX, 1848, 249 (in part; includes also Crossopus and 



Pachyura); not Galemys Kaup, 1829. 

 1855. Anoius (subgenus) Wagner, Suppl. Schreber's Saugthiere, V, 1855, 550-551. 



Type, Sorex carolinensis Bach., from South Carolina. 



D?'a(/no,9is.— Teeth, 32; unicuspids, 5, the anterior 4 in two pairs; first 

 and second largest and subequal; third and fourth abruptly much smaller 

 and subequal; fifth minute (see fig. 1, a and p. 10). Basal lobe of 

 middle incisor elongated anteroposteriorly. Brain case not arched ante- 

 roposteriorly, highest at lambdoid suture; plane of occiput nearly flat. 



