■894-] 181 
[Miller. 
3. SOREX ALBIBARBIS (Cope). 
Our chief object in visiting Profile Lake was to secure topo- 
typesi of the Neosorex albibarbis Cope. The two original 
specimens of this species were taken on the shore of Profile Lake 
in September, 1859, the original description appearing three years 
later in the Proc. acad. nat. sci. Phil., 1862, p. 188. Since then 
the history of the species has been uneventful. So far as I know, 
up to the present year but one additional specimen has been 
taken. This individual, from Warwick, Mass., was recorded by 
A. E. Verrill in the Proc. Bost. soc. nat. hist., v. 9, p. 164, 
October, 1862, under the name of Neosorex pahistris ; Mr. Verrill 
proving to his satisfaction the identity of the animal with 
Richardson's Sorex pahistris. Mr. J. A. Allen mentions this 
specimen under the same name in his Catalogue of the mammals 
of Massachusetts (Bull. mus. comp. zool., v. 1, p. 211, 1869). 
I can find no additional references to Neosorex from tlie eastern 
states until April, 1892, when Dr. C. Hart Merriam enumerates 
both S. pahistris and S. albibarbis among the mammals of the 
boreal zone (Proc. biolog. soc. Wash., v. 7, p. 25). 
We captured two specimens within a few hundred yards of 
Profile Lake ; and I also have a series of seven examples from 
Elizabethtown, Essex Co., N. Y., taken in May and June, 1893. 
The specimens from these localities are certainly identical, and 
that they represent a species distinct from Sorex pahistris I think 
there can be no doubt. 
Richardson, in the original description of Sorex palustr is, states 
that the dorsal aspect of his animal is black with a slight hoary 
appearance when turned to the light. This applies very well to 
the i)resent species. Continuing his description Richardson saj^s : 
"On the ventral aspect it is ash-colored." This statement can 
scarcely apply to the eastern specimens. These are rather dark 
suioke-gray on the belly fading to nearly white on the chin and 
throat. The term ash-colored was applied in the second volume 
of the Fauna Boreali-Americana to much ])aler tints than this. 
Thus, the ventral surfaces of such birds as Spizella monticola and 
' The term "topo-type," recently proposed by Mr. Oldfield Thomas (Proc. zool. soc. 
Lend., March H, 1893, p. 242) for specimens "collected at the exact locality where the 
original type was obtained," is much more satisfactory than the term "duplicate type" 
used in the same sense by Dr. Merriam (N. A. fauna, 1, p. 4, foot-note.) Topo-type 
has the advantages of brevity and exact connotation, while the term "duplicate type" 
is self-contradictory, since type specimens must necessarily be unique. 
