598 



REPOKT OF STATE GEOLOGIST. 



from South America, and more than twenty from North America, 

 Three forms occur in Indiana. They may be distinguished by the 

 following key: 



Teeth 30; body slender; tail longer than head. (Subgenus Gryptotis.) 



parva, p. 602. 



Teeth 32; body thickset; tail about the length of the head. (Subgenu.^^ 

 Blarina. ) 



Hairs of back tipped with brown ; average length about inches. 



carolinensis, p. 601. 



Hairs of back all blackish or slate; length about 4% inches or longer. 



hrevicauda, p. 598. 



BLARINA BREVICAUDA (Say). 



SHORT-TAILED SHREW ; LARGE SHREW ; MOLE SHREW. 

 Sometimes called Mole Mouse. 



Sorex hrevicaudus Say, Long's Expedition to the Rocky Mts., 



Vol. I, p. 164, 1823. 

 Blarina hrevicauda Baird, Mammals of N. America, p. 42, 1857. 



Evermann and Butler, Proc. Ind. Acad. Sci. for 1893, p. 132, 



1894. 



Merriam, N. Amer. Fauna No. 10, p. 10, 1895. 



Diagnostic characters. — Form thickset ; tail and legs short ; 

 fore and hind feet slender ; color glossy plumbeous black ; fur 

 thick and soft like a mole's; length of head and body a little less 

 than four inches. 



Description. — The typical form of this species is the largest of 

 our North American shrews. The color is sooty plumbeous above 

 and but very slightly paler below. The back shows little or no 

 trace of the brownish color which is characteristic of the southern 

 subspecies, carolinensis. Feet, pale flesh color, covered with short 

 whitish hairs; soles and inner side of hind feet plumbeous. 



Measurements. — Ten specimens collected in Newton, Porter, La- 

 grange and Noble counties had the following average measure- 

 ments: Total length, 115.3 mm. (4 11/16 in.) ; tail, 23.7 mm. 

 (15/16 in.) ; hind foot, 15.5 mm. (11/16 in.). Merriam states that 

 specimens from the type locality, Blair, Nebraska, are larger, meas- 

 uring 127 mm. in total length; tail, 26.5 and hind foot 16.5. 



Skull and teeth. — The skull (Fig. 16) is very large and strong 

 for a shrew. Thrcc^ from Winona T;ake have an average length of 

 23^/2 millimeters and the greatest breadth is 13 mm. The skull of 

 this species, like those of its near relntives, is triangular both in 

 cross section nnd in loiigitndirud outline. The base is flat; audital 

 bullne wholly on the under side ol' the braincase; palate arched 



