610 



REPOin' OF STA'IM<: (lEOLOCTST. 



They differ from the shrews in being more perfectly adapted 

 to an underground life, The fore feet (fig. 20) are very broad and 

 the pectoral girdle is powerfully made to enable them to burrow. 

 The pelvic girdle is also strong and the sacral vertebrae are partly 

 fused. The teeth are always entirely white unless stained by food. 



Genus Scalops Illiger. 



Scalops Illiger, Prodr. syst. mamm. et avium, p. 126, 1811. 



Dental formula— 1, C, ^E^; Pm, '^y, M, = 36. 



Generic characters. — Nostrils (fig. 21b) on the upper side of 

 the snout, not surrounded by fleshy protuberances ; tail (fig. 22a) 

 slender and uniformly tapering from base to tip, not very well cov- 

 ered by the sparse hair ; fore feet very broad, elliptical in outline, 

 the longest axis being transverse, and turned edgewise; claws of 

 fore feet long. 



This genus is found only in eastern North America, where it is 

 represented by a small number of closely related forms, only one 

 of them being known from Indiana. 



SCALOPS AQUATICUS MACHRINUS (Rafinesque) . 

 PRAIRIE MOLE. 



Talpa machrina Rafinesque, Atlantic Journ., 1832, p. 61. 



Scalops argentatiis Audubon and Bachman, Journ. Acad. Nat. 

 Sci., Phil., Vol. 8, p. 292, 1842. 



Scalops aquaticus argentatus Coues, Bull. IJ. S. Geol. Surv. 

 Terr. No. 3, p. 633, 1877. 



Scalops aquaticus Evermann and Butler, Proc. Ind. Acad. Sci. 

 for 1893, p. 133, 1894. 



Scalops aquaticvs macJirinus True, Proc. U. S. Nat. Museum, 

 Vol. 19, p. 20, 1896. 



Diagnostic characters. — Feet very brond, shovel-like; color 

 glossy plumbeous; fur soft and velvety; tail scantily haircnl, compar- 

 atively short, very slightly swollen in the middle. Size the largest 

 of our American moles. 



Description. — The subspecies machrinns is distinguished from 

 the nearly related forms of Scalops chiefly by its large size. Color, 

 glossy hair-brown, below paler with a silvery sheen ; bases of the 

 hairs everywhere dark slate color. The fore feet are about half an 

 inch })road, placed vertically with the radial side downward ; claws 

 long; stout and flat on the ventral surface; hind feet more slender. 

 Both fore and hind feet are flesh color; nose blackish; the nostrils 



