5^6 
SOREX. SHREW. 
Generic Character. 
Denies Primores superiores 
duo, longi, bifidi. 
Inferiores duo vel quatuorj 
intermediis brevioribus. 
Laniarii utrinque plures. 
Molar es cuspidati. 
Front-teeth in the upper jaw 
two, long, bifid. 
In the lower two or four; the 
intermediate ones shorter. 
Canine-teeth several on each 
side. 
Grinders cuspidated. 
X HE genus Sorea^, in its general appearance, 
bears a great resemblance to the mouse tribe ; but 
the structure, number^ and situation of the teeth 
prove it to constitute a very different set of ani- 
mals, which are evidently rather carnivorous than 
frugivorous. It is more closely allied to the ge- 
nus Talpa ; insomuch that thes^ two genera may 
be considered as linked to each other by interme- 
diate species, which in habit resemble the one ge- 
nus, and in teeth the other. It is owing to this 
circumstance that Linnaeus, in the twelfth edi- 
tion of the Systema Natprae, has placed one or 
two genuine species of Talpa in the genus Sorex. 
The most common species of Sorex in this coun- 
try is the S. Araneus, commonly known by the 
name of the Shrew Mouse. 
