﻿96 



NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. 



[No, 10. 



Geographic distribution. — Klamath Basin, Oregon, and thence north- 

 ward along east side of Cascade range to Puget Sound (Port Moody, 

 British Columbia) ; westward (probably through Klamath River Yalley) 

 to coast of California, and southward to Sonoma County, 



General characters. — Size, large (total length, 150 mm.; head and 

 body, 82 mm.; hind foot, 20 mm.); tail long; coloration uniform sooty 

 or sooty brown, sometimes paler below. 



Color. — Dull sooty plumbeous, changing in worn pelage to sooty 

 brown, faintly paler on under parts; tail dusky all round. Some of the 

 specimens from Easton and Port Moody have the under parts decidedly 

 pale, suggesting a seasonal difference. 



Cranial and dental characters. — The ch-aracters by which Atophyrax 

 differs from Sorex and Neosorex have been given in the subgeneric diag- 

 nosis and need not be repeated here. The skull of S. bendirii differs 

 from those of palmeri a.nd albirenter, the only other members of the sub- 

 genus now known, m the following i)articulars : Size smaller (total 

 length, 22.5 mm.); anterior narrow part of rostrum shorter; brain case 

 shorter; interpterygoid notch broader; unicuspidate series slightly 

 more divergent posteriorly; molars narrower. 



Measurements. — Type specimen (measured from alcohol, in good con- 

 dition): Total length, 150 mm.; tail vertebrae, 68 mm.; hind foot, 

 20 mm. Average of 3 specimens from Mendocino County, Calif, 

 (measured in flesh): Total length, 150.3 mm; tail vertebrje, 09. 7 mm.; 

 hind foot, 19.7 mm. 



General remarks. — The type of Atophyrax bendirii was collected in 

 Klamath Basin, Oregon, by Capt. (now Major) C. E. Bendire, and was 

 described by me eleven years ago. The next specimens examined were 

 from Chilliwack, British Columbia, collected by Mr. A. C. Brooks. 

 Subsequently the field naturalists of the division extended the range 

 of the species southward along the coast of California to Gualala, and 

 northward along the Cascade range to Port Moody, on Burrard Inlet, 

 British Columbia. Two additional forms, believed to intergrade with 

 bendirii^ and hence treated as subspecies, have been discovered and are 

 here described : palmeri^ a large black form from the coast of Oregon 

 at Astoria; and albiventer, a white-bellied form from the Olympic 

 Mountains of Washington. In addition to these, the form from Gua- 

 lala^ Calif., differs somewhat from typical bendirii, and if the characters 

 shown by the only two specimens at hand prove constant, will also 

 merit subspecific separation. The two specimens referred to differ 

 from all other American Shrews in having the fifth unicuspidate tooth 

 unusually large and with a double cusp. The peculiarity would seem 

 to be abnormal, but is constant in the two specimens examined. The 

 unicuspidate teeth are more crowded, so that the series as a whole is 

 shorter and the cingulum does not reach so far backward. The large 

 upper premolar and first true molar are more deeply excavated pos- 

 teriorly, and the third and fourth unicuspids larger. 



