Part 14

Sorex orizabae Merriam, N. Amer. Fauna, 10:71, December 31, 1895.

Sorex vagrans orizabae, Jackson, N. Amer. Fauna, 51:113, July 24, 1928.

Type.--Adult female, skin and skull; No. 53633, U. S. Biol. Surv. Coll.; obtained on April 24, 1893, by E. W. Nelson from W slope of Mt. Orizaba, 9,500 ft., Puebla.

Range.--Transverse volcanic belt of mountains at the southern end of the Mexican Plateau.

Diagnosis.--Size small for the species; measurements of 3 specimens from Volcan Toluca, Mexico, are: total length, 98, 100, 108; tail, 35, 39, 40; hind foot, 13, 13, 14. Summer pelage Mummy Brown tending toward Olive Brown; Fuscous to Fuscous-Black in winter; skull and teeth relatively narrow.

Comparisons.--For comparison with S. v. monticola see account of that subspecies.

Remarks.--The range of S. v. orizabae probably is not now in contact with that of any other subspecies of S. vagrans, although judging by the slight degree of difference between orizabae and monticola the separation between the two has not been of great duration.

Sorex vagrans orizabae occurs with S. saussurei saussurei throughout the transverse volcanic belt.

Specimens examined.--Total number, 23.

MICHOACAN: Patamban, 1 BS; Nahuatzin, 3 BS; Mt. Tancitaro, 4 BS.

MEXICO: Salazar, 2 BS, 1 KU; Volcan de Toluca, 3 BS.

TLAXCALA: Mt. Malinche, 2 BS.

PUEBLA: Mt. Orizaba, 6 BS.

VERACRUZ: Cofre de Perote, 1 BS.

Marginal records.--MICHOACAN: Patamban. VERACRUZ: Cofre de Perote. PUEBLA: Mt. Orizaba. MICHOACAN: Mt. Tancitaro.

=Sorex vagrans vagrans= Baird

Sorex vagrans Baird, Rep't Pacific R. R. Survey 8: pt. 1, Mammals, p. 15, July 14, 1858.

Sorex suckleyi Baird, Rep't Pacific R. R. Survey 8: pt. 1, Mammals, p. 18, July 14, 1858, type from Steilacoom, Pierce Co., Washington.

Sorex dobsoni Merriam, N. Amer. Fauna, 5:33, July 30, 1891, type from Alturas or Sawtooth Lake, altitude about 7200 ft., E base Sawtooth Mts., Blaine Co., Idaho.

Sorex amoenus Merriam, N. Amer. Fauna, 10:69, December 31, 1895, type from near Mammoth, 8000 ft., head Owens River, E slope Sierra Nevada, Mono Co., California.

Sorex nevadensis Merriam, N. Amer. Fauna, 10:71, December 31, 1895, type from Reese River, 6000 ft., Nye-Lander Co. line, Nevada.

Sorex shastensis Merriam, N. Amer. Fauna, 16:87, October 28, 1899, type from Wagon Camp, Mt. Shasta, 5700 ft., Siskiyou Co., California.

Type.--Adult male, alcoholic; No. 1675, U. S. Nat. Mus.; obtained at Shoalwater (Willapa) Bay, Pacific Co., Washington; received from J. G. Cooper, and entered in Museum catalog on October 23, 1856.

Range.--The Great Basin, and Columbia Plateau west across the mountains to the Pacific coast of northern California, Oregon, Washington and southwestern British Columbia.

Diagnosis.--Size small for the species; average and extreme measurements of 8 topotypes are: total length, 104.1 (99-109); tail, 43.3 (42-45); hind foot, 12.9 (12-14). Summer pelage ranging from (15'k) Cinnamon Brown through (15'm) Proutt's Brown to (17'm) Mummy Brown. Winter pelage (13''''m) Fuscous Black to (17''''m) Chaetura Black.

Comparisons.--For comparison with S. v. monticola see account of that subspecies. Differs from S. v. halicoetes in relatively narrower and more attenuate rostrum and in less brownish underparts in winter pelage; smaller and more brownish (less grayish) than Sorex vagrans from the southern Sierra Nevada.

1. S. v. vancouverensis 2. S. v. vagrans 3. S. v. halicoetes 4. S. v. paludivagus 5. S. v. obscuroides 6. S. v. mixtus ]

Remarks.--Restriction of the range of S. v. monticola to Arizona and New Mexico leaves shrews that were formerly assigned to this subspecies from Utah, Idaho, Washington and southern British Columbia unassigned. Several names are available for consideration. The name Sorex vagrans dobsoni Merriam, 1891, type locality Alturas Lake, Blaine Co., Idaho, was once applied to small shrews from Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and Utah, but was considered by Jackson to be synonymous with S. v. monticola. The name Sorex vagrans amoenus Merriam, 1895, type locality near Mammoth, Mono Co., California, has been applied to wandering shrews from western Nevada, northeastern California and southern Oregon. Sorex vagrans nevadensis Merriam, 1895, type locality Reese River on Nye-Lander Co. line, Nevada was considered by Hall (1946:119) to be synonymous with S. v. amoenus. Specimens of Sorex vagrans west of the Cascade Mountains have long been referred to the nominate subspecies which has its type locality at Willapa Bay, Pacific Co., Washington. Over so wide an area it is only to be expected that some geographic variation is to be found. Thus specimens from central Nevada average slightly paler in summer pelage than those from the Pacific Coast or from the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. In addition there are slight average differences in size from place to place. Topotypes of S. v. vagrans, however, show a fair degree of variability and some are nearly as pale as the paler Great Basin stocks. Furthermore topotypical individuals of vagrans can be lost in series of S. v. amoenus, although amoenus is shorter-tailed on the average. Specimens from the western foothills of the Rocky Mountains show an amazing series of relationships with the montane S. v. obscurus. In Utah, as previously pointed out, complete intergradation occurs. At 1 mi. N Heath, Washington Co., Idaho, the lowland and the highland forms approach each other within a short distance and still maintain a degree of distinctness, especially in size. In northwestern Montana intergradation is extensive (Clothier, 1950). In northeastern Washington distinctly separable populations occur within a few miles of one another. In southern British Columbia some populations are clearly intergrades while at 6 mi. S Yahk intergradation seemingly has not taken place. Where some intergradation has occurred the result often has been increased size of the lowland shrews, although they usually retain the reddish summer pelage rather than acquiring the more grayish pelage of obscurus. The name dobsoni was based upon shrews from a place where lowland and highland forms occur almost together with only a slight amount of intergradation. Examples of "dobsoni" may not with certainty be distinguished from typical vagrans except that they are, as Merriam (1895:68-69) points out, somewhat larger. Merriam (loc. cit.) further notes that dobsoni is "intermediate in size and cranial characters between S. vagrans and obscurus;" a statement which hits very close to the heart of the matter. I consider the name dobsoni to apply to intergrades. To attempt to apply the name to the highly variable populations of intergrades from British Columbia to southern Idaho seems inadvisable. I have examined the possibility of using the name amoenus for the animals from this region. The characters which set amoenus apart from vagrans, slightly shorter tail and slightly darker summer pelage, however, are not universally found in shrews from the Columbian Plateau and eastern Great Basin and furthermore these differences between amoenus and vagrans do not seem to me to be of great enough magnitude to warrant subspecific recognition of the former. Thus the name S. v. vagrans may apply to shrews in the region under consideration. The subspecies, as thus thought of, embraces several incipient subspecies, namely (1) the populations on the isolated mountain ranges of Nevada, (2) the coastal rain forest population and possibly (3) the population on the Columbian Plateau.