﻿Dec, 1895.] 



SPECIES OF BLARINA. 



7 



deformed); B. exiUpes (from Washiiigtoi], Miss.) seems to "be identical 

 with B. parva; wliile B. herlandieri (from Matamoras, Mexico) is eitlier 

 a distinct species or a subspecies of parva. 



The statu.s and relationships of Blarina parva have never been cor- 

 rectly understood. As stated above the species was described by Say 

 more than seventy years ago from a specimen from eastern Nebraska. 

 In 1837 Bachman described a Shrew from South Carolina under the 

 name Sorex cinereus. He had great difficulty in separating it from 

 Say's S. parvus^ and "felt at one time a strong inclination to set it 

 down as that animal."^ In 1857 Baird admitted 8, cinereus^ and cor- 

 rectly transferred it from Sorex to Blarina. But he took pains to state 

 that he was unfamiliar with Sorex parvus of Say. Like Bachman, 

 he suspected the identity of the two, for he says t\i?it parva "comes 

 very close to the Sorex cinereus of Bachman, and may possibly some day 

 supplant its name.*'^ In the same year (1857) Baird added another sup. 

 loosed sx^ecies, which he called Blarina exilipes.^ The type specimens 

 came from Washington, Miss.; and specimens from SjDottsylvania 

 County, Va., Brownsville, Tenn. [Texas ?], St. Louis, Mo., and Dekalb 

 County, 111., were referred to the same species though those from the 

 two latter localities were provisionally separated under the name 

 eximius, afterward adopted by Kennicott.^ 



After careful comx^arison of specimens from the type localities of 

 parva, cinerea, and exilipes, I am unable to detect any characters by 

 which any one of them may be distinguished from the others. Baird 

 himself was by no means x)ositive of their distinctness. His remarks 

 about 5. cinerea hnye just been quoted; of B. exilipes he said: " I can 

 not feel sure that the Mississippi sx)ecimens may not x^rove to be the 

 young of 8. cinereus.^'' ^ 



In 1861 Tomes described a small species from Coban, Guatemala, and 

 named it Sorex m icrurus.^ This is the only member of the genus known 

 from any x^oint south of Mexico. 



In 1877 Cones published an additional sx^ecies, from Jalax^a, Mexico, 

 under the name Blarina {Soricisciis) mexicana (Baird MS).'^ 



In 1891 Allen described a large Blarina which he named B. cosfario- 

 ensis^ because the type and only specimen was supposed to have been 

 taken in Costa Eica; but it really came from tlie Upper Mississippi 

 Valley and is a tyxDical hrevicauda.^ 



^ Bachman, Joiir. Acad. Nat. Sci. PMla., VII, Part II, 1837, p. 375. 

 2 Baird, Mammals N. Am., 1857, pp. 50, 56. 

 nbid, pp. 51-53. 



•^Ibid, p. 52; Quadrupeds of Illinois, 1858, p. 97. 

 ■^Ibid.,p.52. 



<^ Tomes, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1861, 279. The name micrura is preoccupied and 

 tropicalis is here substituted for it. (See p. 23, foot note.) 

 ' Coues, Bull. U. S. Geol. and Geog. Surv., Ill, May 15, 1877, 652, 653 

 8 Allen, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., Ill, No. 2, April, 1891, 205, 206. 

 ^^ee postea, under Blarina drevicauda, ]i). l4r. 



