﻿Dec, 1895.] 



SOREX SAUSSUREI. 



83 



Cranial and dental characters.— The skull of JS, verccpacis I have not 

 seen, but judgiDg from Alston's rather poor figures it presents no 

 unusual characters, except that tlie molariform series converge poste- 

 riorly, leaving the roof of the mouth broadest on the plane of the first 

 true molar. Alston states that the first upper incisor has a well-marked 

 internal cusp and that the canine (fourth unicuspid) is slightly smaller 

 than the fourth incisor (third unicuspid); but Mr. Oldfield Thomas, 

 curator of mammals in the British Museum, who has kindly reexamined 

 the type at my request, writes me that the contrary is true. Mr. 

 Thomas says: Sorex vercepacis has the fourth unicuspid distinctly 

 higher than the third, so Alston's description is wrong." The relations 

 of these teeth are correctly shown in Dobson's Monograph of the 

 Insectivora, Part III, fasc. 1, PI. XXIII, fig. 8. 



Measnreme7its.--The measurements recorded by Alston from the 

 mounted specimens are, approximately : Total length, 137 mm.^ tail ver- 

 tebnie, 51 mm. 5 hind foot, 13.5 mm. The measurement of the hind foot 

 is erroneous. Mi\ Oldfield Thomas finds that it measures 15.7 mm. 



General remarkti, — The two original si^ecimens of Sorex vercepacis 

 were brought to England from Ooban, Guatemala, more than half a 

 century ago, and are still unique.^ The species finds its nearest relative 

 in S. macrodon^ of Orizaba, Mexico. Mr. Thomas, who has compared 

 8. macrodon with the type of verapacis, writes me that the latter is 

 much the darker and that the third and fourth unicuspids are very 

 different in shape. 



SOREX SAUSSUREI Merriam. 



Sorex saiissurei Merriam, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, YII, 173-174, September 29, 1892. 



Type locality. — Xorth slope Sierra Xevada de Colima, Jalisco, Mexico 

 (altitude, 8,000 feet). 



General cliaracters. — Size rather large; tail rather short (shorter than 

 body without head); ears large; hind foot, 11.5 mm. 



Color. — Ui^per parts finely mixed sepia brown and dusky, the dark 

 hairs predominating over the rump; under parts drab gray on throat 

 and breast, more or less clouded over the bellj^; tail dark, i^aler below 

 proximally. 



Cranial and dental characters. — Skull large; rostrum high and swol- 

 len ; constriction broad ; brain case not abruptly elevated; palate rather 

 narrow ; postpalatal notch broad; third unicuspid slightly smaller than 

 fourth. The skull of Sorex saiissurei hardly needs comparison with any 

 other species. It is very much larger than any member of the ohscur^is 

 group, and is nearly as large as S. macrodon. It may be known from 

 the latter at a glance by the smaller molariform teeth and more slender 

 anterior part of rostrum, with much smaller anterior nares. 



Measurements. — Average of 2 specimens from type locality: Total 

 IcDgth, 118.5 mm.; tail vertebrae, 47 mm.; hind foot, 14.5 mm. 



'Since the ahove vas printed 5 specimens have been received from Tumbala, 

 Chiapas, Mexico. 



