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Show 1888.] MR. O.THOMAS ON SMALL MAMMALS FROM TEXAS. 443 2. On the Small Mammals of Duval County, South Texas. By OLDFIELD THOMAS. [Eeceived July 25, 1888. J Mr. William Taylor, a resident of San Diego1, the capital of Duval County, South Texas, has for many years past occupied himself in the useful task of studying and collecting the small mammals of that county, transmitting the specimens obtained to the British Museum, and at the same time making many valuable observations on the habits of the different species. These observations are embodied in the notes attached to the names of the several species below, and distinguished by having Mr. Taylor's initials appended to them. Considering our ignorance of the variation and exact distribution of most small mammals, the value of such work as Mr. Taylor's cannot be exaggerated, and it is to be hoped that he will continue his observations, and, perhaps, extend his area of research into neighbouring counties, and even into North-western Mexico, where he has already made some preliminary expeditions. Mr. Taylor has been successful in discovering one new species, a diminutive Vesper-Mouse, besides adding no less than six species to our National Collection of Mammalia, a result for which Mammalogists in this country have every reason to be grateful. In all, of Insectivora, Chiroptera, and Rodentia, Mr. Taylor has obtained examples of seventeen species within the limits of Duval County, a number that would no doubt have been largely augmented had not his attention been mainly concentrated on the most difficult, and therefore the most important, group of all, that of the rats, mice, and other Myo-morpha. I N S E C T I V O R A. 1. SCALOPS AQUATICUS, L. a. 2. 4/86. Head and body 107 millim., tail 29, hind foot 14*5, head 40, tip of muzzle to eye 17'6. " Is common throughout the county. Although blind it is very cunning, and it is the only animal 1 have had in confinement that found out the way to lift the fastening of the cage-door and escape."- W. T. 2. SOREX (SOREX) PERSONATUS, Geoffr. (?). a. 8 • Head and body 49 millim., tail 36, hind foot 10'5, ear 3'1. I am not fully satisfied as to the determination of this specimen, but tbe dimensions agree so closely with those of S. personatus that I hesitate to distinguish it without seeing a larger series. 1 About 98° 25' W. and 27° 50' N. |