THE STAR-NOSED MOLE. 
373 
lustre. The muzzle is shorter than in the European Mole, and no trace either of ears or eyes can 
be detected externally. The tail is nearly naked, but almost concealed in the hairs of the body. 
Nothing seems to have been ascertained about the habits of this animal. 
The Scaptonyx (Scwptonyx fusieaudatus ) is another of the curious Eastern forms which so 
remarkably unite to each other different types of these small Mammals. In its external characters it 
resembles Urotrichus, but it has the dentition of the genus Ta/pa, and the nostrils are not elongated 
into a proboscis. Its length is about two inches and a half, and the length of its tail about one inch 
and two-fifths. The' fur is thick, and soft, and the hairs are blue-black at the base, with a brownish 
tint towards the tip. The single specimen described was obtained on the borders of Kokonoor and 
Setcliouan, but nothing is recorded of its habits. 
SIDE VIEW OF SNOUT OF STAR-NOSED MOLE. 
( Twice Natural Size.) 
skull is elongated, and the 
incisors, four premolars, and three true molars on each side in each jaw. 
THE STAR-NOSED MOLE * 
Besides the Eastern forms to which we have just referred, there are a few American species of this 
family, which differ rather more decidedly from the ordinary Moles. Perhaps the most remarkable of 
them is the Star-nosed Mole, an inhabitant of Canada and the United States, extending from South 
Carolina to Hudson’s Bay, and stretching right across the continent, from ocean to ocean. 
The most striking characteristic of this animal, which constitutes the genus Condylura, is the 
presence at the extremity of its elongated nose of a sort of fringe of about twenty long fleshy processes, 
forming a regular star, having the nostrils towards its centre. The 
names Rhinaster and Astromycter , both meaning “ Star-nose,” have 
been given to the genus by different writers. The name Condylura 
is founded on a mistake, the tail having been supposed to have a 
knob or knot. The tail is nearly as long as the body, the general 
appearance of which is mole-like, but the shoulders are stouter and 
heavier in proportion to the hind-quarters than in our Common 
Mole, although the digging hands are hardly so powerful. The 
last phalanges of the fingers are not cleft, as in the Mole. The 
jaws contain in all forty-four teeth — namely, besides canines, three 
The arrangement of the 
teeth in the long jaws is rather peculiar. In the upper jaw the two middle and the 
two outer incisors are of large size, and the latter are quite like canines ; between 
them is a third minute tooth on each side. The true canine is very small ; the first 
three premolars are thin and sharp, and the fourth much larger than the rest. In the 
lower jaw we find four projecting incisors, and behind the outer ones on each side a 
much smaller one, followed at an interval by a small canine with two roots. The eyes 
are very minute, and there are no external ears. 
This curious little animal, which measures about five inches in length, and has a 
tail about three inches long, is of a brownish-black colour, a little paler beneath, but 
appearing in certain lights perfectly black throughout. The naked, or nearly naked parts, such as 
the nose, ’with its singular appendages, and the feet, arc generally of a flesh-colour, the tips of the 
fringes and of the claws being, in fact, quite rosy. The tail is well covered with hair. 
The Star-nosed Mole, like the other members of its family, lives beneath the surface of the ground, 
where it is able to burrow rapidly in soft earth. It prefers the vicinity of brooks or swampy places. 
The galleries do not run so near the surface as those of the Common Shrew Mole of America. The nest 
is composed of dried grass, and placed in an excavation made under some protective object, such as a 
stump or the root of a tree. The young show scarcely any trace of the nasal appendages. The precise 
use of these curious organs in the adult does not seem to be ascertained ; probably they aid as sensory 
organs in the discovery of the worms and larva) of insects on which the creature feeds. 
FRONT VIEW OF 
SNOUT OF STAR- 
NOSED MOLE. 
THE COMMON SHREW MOLE.f 
The Shrew Mole, which is often called simply the Mole in the United States, is another very 
widely-distributed species in North America, throughout the whole eastern part of which it is found 
48 
Condylura cristata. 
f Scalops aquations. 
