﻿88 



NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. 



[No. 10. 



SOREX MERRIAMI Dobson. 

 (PI. IX, figs. 4/4«; PI. XII, figs. 10, 11.) 



Sorex merriami Dobson, Monog. lusectivora, Part III, fasc. 1, PI. XXIII, fig. 6 (type). 

 May, 1890. 



Type locality.— Fort Ouster, Montana. (Type, ^^o. i^^j, 2 ad., Mer- 

 riam collection.) Collected December 26, 1884, by Maj. Charles E. 

 Bendire. Original number, 635. 



General characters, — Size medium (hind foot, 12 mm.); tail hardly as 

 long as body without headj ears very large (4 mm. from crown and 

 5 mm. from upper basejj coloration peculiar: upper parts pale; under 

 parts, sides, and tail white or nearly white. 



Color (of type specimen dried from alcohol). — Head and back ash 

 gray or drab with a bufty tinge; sides and under i^arts ])ure white; feet 

 and tail whitish; the latter white below and bufty white above.^ 



Cranial and dental characters, — Skull short, broad, and swollen, unlike 

 any known American shrew. Brain case rather tlat, not elevated 

 above plane of rostrum; constriction broad and swollen; rostrum and 

 palate remarkably broad and short. The palate is broad for the entire 

 length of the molariform series and then contracts rather abruptly. 

 The unicuspidate and molariform teeth are in the same plane, the usual 

 angle being nearly obsolete. The unicuspidate series are short and 

 slope strongly inward. The unicuspid teeth are crowded, nearly verti- 

 cal, and but slightly imbricating; the second is decidedly the largest 

 tooth; first and third subequal; fourth decidedly smaller than third; 

 fifth minute as usual. The large upper premolar and first true molar 

 are broadly and deeply excavated i^osterioiiy. The middle incisor has 

 no secondary cusp on its inner side. The mandible is short and heavy. 



In some respects the skull resembles that of 8. pribilofensis, partic- 

 ularly in the great breadth of the constriction; but the two hardly 

 need comparison, the unusual breadth of the i3alate, flatter brain case, 

 smaller anterior nares, larger molars, and more crowded unicuspid s of 

 8. merriami serving to distinguish it at a glance. 



Measurements (of type specimen, a well-preserved alcoholic). — Total 

 length, 90 mm,; tail vertebrae, 36 mm.; hind foot, 11 mm. 



General remar'ks. — The type and only knoAvn specimen of this remark- 

 able Shrew was presented to me by Maj. Charles E. Bendire, who col- 

 lected it at the post garden, on the Little Big Horn Kiver, about a mile 

 and a half above Fort Custer, Mont., December 26, 1884. I sent it, 

 with all of my other Shrews, to Dr. George E. Dobson, who was then 

 engaged on a monographic revision of the Soricidce. Unfortunately, 

 owing to Dr. Dobson's continued ill health, all that has ever been imb- 

 lished of this monograph is a fasciculus of plates, showing the jaws and 



'In a note accompanying the. specimen the collector. Major Bendire, states that 

 the original color was different from that of the other Shrews {S. jyersonatus) , being 

 ''much more bluish." 



