MAMMALS-SORICINAE—BLARINA TALPOIDES. 
39 
yellowish white; whiskers grayish; tail uniformly dusky. This is also the case with speci¬ 
mens from Massachusetts, Carlisle, Eacine, and most localities generally. One specimen 
from Racine has much the same ground color, hut intermixed are many hairs of a silvery 
grayish, imparting quite a hoary appearance. This is also seen in one specimen from Ann 
Arhor, Michigan, and is probably the winter condition of the pelage. A specimen from West 
Northfield, Illinois, has the chin and tip of tail white; the teeth are all colored at the ends, 
dark reddish or purplish brown, the tips of the long incisors nearly black ; the small premolar 
is alone entirely white. 
A specimen from Holmes’ Hole, Massachusetts, (903,) belonging to the Boston Natural His¬ 
tory Society, is of a very pale, brownish chestnut above, fading to the belly into a still paler tint 
of the same. The colors, however, are such as might be the result of a partial bleaching, espe¬ 
cially of a specimen preserved in alcohol impregnated with corrosive sublimate, and exposed to 
the light. I have seen precisely this tint produced in moles, under the circumstances here 
supposed. 
As it is a matter of much importance to define the characters of this species, the most abun¬ 
dant of the North American shrews, I have appended the following very full table of measure¬ 
ments to illustrate the variations in size and proportions to which it is subject. 
Measurements . (A.) 
Grosse He, Wis. 
(J Alcohol. 
Carlisle, Pa. 
Alcohol. 
Montreal, (198.) 
Dried. 
Inches. 
Lines. 
Inches. 
Lines. I 
Inches. 
Lines. 
Nose to occiput_ 
1 
Nose to eye_____^ _ ____ 
6 
5| 
Nose to ear._ 
10 
8J ! 
Nose to root of tail.. 
3 
4 
3 
2 
4 
4 
Nose to end of outstretched hind legs_ 
4 
3 
Tail from root to end of vertebrae._ 
11 
11 
1 
2 
Tail from root to end of hairs_ 
1 
1 
1 
Ears, width of aperture_- 
3 
3 
Arm, forefoot to end of claws..._ 
5 
Arm, longest claw_ 
1| 
Leg, hind foot from heel to end of claws_ 
6J 
n 
Leg, longest claw_ _ 
! 
1 
1 
