I 00 /^ Vol. 52, pp. 93-96 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WA5 June 5, 1939 imGTON ^"^X JUN8 1939 n TWO NEW SHREWS FROM WEST-CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. BY JACK C. VONBLOEKER, JR. hos Angeles Museum. In the summer of 1936, while trapping mammals in Monterey-County, California, the writer procured a shrew of the Sorex ornatus group from the salt-marsh at the mouth of the Salinas River. Comparative examination of the specimen at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, Berkeley, California, indicated that it differed appreciably from other known Californian races of the group. It was therefore determined that an attempt should be made to obtain additional specimens for comparison. Subsequent field operations in the salt-marshes bordering Monterey Bay have proven successful and reveal the presence in that region not only of an hitherto unknown race of the Sorex ornatus group of shrews, but one of the Sorex vagrans group as well. These two new subspecies may be named and diagnosed as: Sorex vagrans paludivagus, subsp. no v. PAIiUSTRINE WANDERING SHREW. Type. — c? adult, skin and skull, no. 5053, Los Angeles Museum of History, Science and Art, from the salt-marsh at the mouth of Elkhorn Slough, Moss Landing, Monterey County, California, November 3, 1938, collected by Jack C. von Bloeker, Jr., orig. no. 9456. Distribution. — In so far as known, confined to coastal salt-marsh areas in west-central CaUfornia, from San Gregorio, San Mateo County, south at least to Seaside Lagoon, Monterey County. Probably also occurs in the salt-marshes on the seaward side of the San Francisco Peninsula as far north as Rockaway Beach, San Mateo County, and on the Monterey Peninsula as far south as Point Pinos, Monterey Coimty. Diagnosis. — A moderately large (see measurements), darkly colored, 22— Pboc. Biol. Soc. Wash., Vol. 52, 1939. (93) •jgij I w
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