STAR-NOSED MOLE. 
143 
cheek-teeth fourteen above and sixteen beneath. In this arrangement he 
is followed by Haelax, Godman, GRiFFtTu, De Kay and others. The de- 
scription of the teeth, by Desmarest, is very accurate, and so is the very 
recent one of Dr. De Kay. F. Ouv:er, on whose judgment, in regard to 
characters founded on dentition, we would sooner rely than on that of any 
other naturalist, has on the other hand, {Des dents des Mammiferes, 1825, 
p. 5(5,) given descriptions and figures of these teeth, there being two in- 
ci.sive, two canine, and sixteen molar above, and two incisive, two canine, 
and fourteen molar below. Our recent examination of a series of skulls 
are in accordance with his views, and we have adopted his dental arrange- 
ment. The difference, however, between these authors is more in appear- 
ance than in reality. The incisors, canine, and false molars, in their cha- 
racter so nearly approach each other, that it is exceedingly difficult to 
assign to the several grades of teeth their true position in the dental 
system. 
Linnajus described this species under the name of Sorex cristatus, in 
1776, (12th edition, p. 73) ; Pennant, in 1771, gave a description and poor 
figure of what he called the Long-tailed Mole ; and in 1777, Eexleben 
bestowed on the animal thus figured, the name of longicaiidata. 
Pennant’s specimen was received from New-York, and although it was 
badly figured it was correctly characterized “ Long tailed Mole, with a 
radiated nose,” and in his “ Arctic Zoology ” he describes it as “ the nose 
long, the end radiated with short tendrils.” The whole mistake we con- 
ceive was made by Desmarest, whose work we have found exceedingly 
inaccurate, misled, probably, by Pennant’s figure, without looking at his 
description. He gives one of the characters “point des erdtes nasales,” 
when Pennant had statedquite the reverse. Hence the error of Harlan, 
whose article on Condylura longicaudata is a translation of Desmarest. 
We feel confident that this supposed species must be struck from the list 
of true species in our Fauna. 
The Condylura macroura of Harlan, Americana, p. 30,) was re- 
garded as a new species, in consequence of a specimen with the tail 
greatly enlarged. It was a second time published by Richardson, who 
adopted Harlan’s name ; Godman first suggested the idea that this 
might be traced to a peculiarity in the animal at a particular season. 
It is known that a similar enlargement takes place annually in the 
neck of the male deer during the rutting season. We have examined 
several specimens where the tail was only slightly enlarged, and the 
swelling was just commencing, and we possess one where one half 
of the tail from the root is of the usual large size of C. macroura, 
and the other half towards the end is abruptly diminished so as to 
