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- ramus forming a continuous spoon-shaped projection, allied to that of the 
upper jaw. The posterior filiform incisor lies against the second, and is 
so small as to be scarcely discernible. 
Habits and Habitat—This species ranges from latitude 40° to 46°. It 
is found in the eastern and northern States, and west to Minnesota. It 
has been taken in Michigan, and in parts of northern and central [li- 
nois. Professor Baird examined specimens from Halifax, N. S., Carlisle, 
Pa., Ft. Ripley, Minnesota, and Essex county, New York. Mr. Kenni- 
cott reported it as not very rare in Edgar county, Illinois, where it was 
observed inhabiting the prairie. i 
The Star-nosed Mole is at present nowhere a common animal, at least 
few collectors have specimens in their museums. Godman, however, 
speaks of them as being so abundant in soft meadows and river bottoms 
that in many places it is scarcely possible to move without breaking 
down their interminable galleries. (Godman’s Natural History, Vol. L, 
page 72.) 
I find no account of the occurrence of this mole in Indiana, although 
it probably inhabits the northern part of this State, as well as Ohio and 
Illinois. Specimen 282 of the National Museum was collected by Pro- 
fessor J. P. Kirtland, at Cleveland, and is, I believe, the only specimen 
known from Ohio.* 
Dr. J. M. Wheaton kindly called my attention to Dr. Kirtland’s list of 
the mammals in Ohio, published in the Geological Report of the State 
for 1838, (now very rare) in which this specimen is mentioned; other- 
wise this species would have been omitted from the present report. 
This species, as to food and general habits, resembles the common mole, 
preferring, however, low, swampy grounds, and not excavating its gal- 
leries to so great an extent. According to Godman its most frequent 
runways are on the margins of small streams, which are followed in 
their minutest windings. In confinement it feeds on flesh, raw or cooked, 
refusing all vegetable foods. Their natural food is the larve of insects 
peculiar to wet meadows. 
The chamber, or nest, is a space of several inches extent, dug in some 
spot where the soil is tenacious and the cell not exposed. A nest con- 
taining three young has been found under a stump. Like most species 
of American moles and shrews, of its breeding habits liltle or nothing 
_is known. 
* Dr. Wheaton writes me October 28, 1879, as follows: ‘‘Mr. C. C. McLaughlin tells 
me that Mr. A. C. Freeman, of Butler P. O., Richland county, Ohio, captured a Star- 
nosed Mole at that place in the spring of 1879. This is reliable.” 
