﻿Dec, 1895] 



SOREX PRIBILOFENSIS. 



87 



Cranial and dental characters. — Skull large and massive, suggesting 

 tliat of Blarina. Brain case broad and flattened^ rounded laterally. 

 Zy gomatic ridge of squamosal strongly developed, forming a horizontal 

 shelf. First and second unicuspids subequalj third about half as 

 large as second j fourth abruptly larger than third, but not so large as 

 second; fifth variable, usually only slightly smaller than third, and 

 tipped with orange. 



Measurements. — Average of 10 specimens from coast of northern 

 California and southern Oregon: Total length, 150 mm.; tail vertebrae, 

 63 mm.; hind foot, 17 mm. 



General remarlis, — Sorex pacificus stands alone and does not require 

 comparison with any other species, its great size and peculiar cinna- 

 mon-rufous color serving to distinguish it at sight. Externally, when 

 in the dark pelage, it resembles the subgenus Atopliyrax perhaps more 

 closely than any species of true Sorex. 



Specimens examined.—TotsLl number, 13, from the following localities 

 on the Pacific Coast. 



Oregon: Yaqnina Bay, 1; montli of Umpqua River (type locality), 3; Marsh- 

 field, 1 ; Myrtle Point, 1. 

 * California: Crescent City, 3 ; Eureka (Plnniboldt Bay), 2 ; Point Reyes (Marin 

 County), 2. 



SOREX PRIBILOFENSIS sp. nov. 

 (PI. IX, figs. 3, 3a.) 



Tijjj'e from St. Paul Island, Pribilof Islands, Bering Sea. Type, No. 30911, $ ad. 

 Collected July 29, 1891, by C. Hart Merriam. ( Alcoliolic. ) 



General characters. — Size rather small; tail short, thick, and remark- 

 ably hairy; ears conspicuous; hind foot, 13 mm. Unicuspids greatly 

 swollen, diminishing from before backward as in S. personatus^ third 

 larger than fourth. Body distinctly tricolor. 



Color. — Head and a band down the back chocolate brown; sides dull 

 ochereous buff, fading into the soiled whitish of under parts: chin, 

 throat, and feet white; tail sharply bicolor: narrowly brown above, 

 broadly white beneath. 



Cranial and dental characters. — Skull short and thick; constriction 

 between brain case and rostrum greatly swollen; palatopterygoids very 

 broad. Anterior unicuspids (first, second, and third) much swollen (very 

 broad transA^ersely). The skull of Sorex pribilof ensis does not requiie 

 comparison with any American Shrew. Contrasted with S. personatus, 

 with which it agrees in lengtl], it is everywhere broader and heavier, 

 the constriction between brain case and rostrum very much broader; 

 the brain case more truncate posteriorly; the rostrum and p)alatoptery- 

 goids broader, and the unicuspidate teeth very much broader. 



Measurements. — Type ( 9 ad.): Total length, 107 mm.; tail vertebrae, 

 35 mm. ; hind foot, 13.5 mm. Average of 5 specimens from type locality : 

 Total length, 105 mm.; tail vertebrae, 31.5 mm. ; hind foot, 13.2 mm. 



