The Moles comprise many extraordinary forms of small mammalia especially characteristic of the temperate regions of the northern hemisphere, only sending out a few species of _Talpa_ along the Himalayas as far as Assam, and even to Tenasserim, if there is no mistake about this locality; while one species is found in Formosa, the northern part of which is almost as much Palæarctic as Oriental. The genus _Talpa_ (7 species), spreads over the whole Palæarctic region from Great Britain to Japan; _Scaptochirus_ (1 species) is a recent discovery in North China; _Condylura_ (1 species), the star-nosed mole, inhabits Eastern North America from Nova Scotia to Pennsylvania; _Scapanus_ (2 species) ranges across from New York to St. Francisco; _Scalops_ (3 species), the shrew-moles, range from Mexico to the great lakes on the east side of America, but on the west only to the north of Oregon. An allied genus, _Myogale_ (2 species), has a curious discontinuous distribution in Europe, one species being found in South-East Russia, the other in the Pyrenees (Plate II., vol. i., p. 218). Another allied genus, _Nectogale_ (1 species), has recently been described by Professor Milne-Edwards from Thibet. _Urotrichus_ is a shrew-like mole which inhabits Japan, and a second species has been discovered in the mountains of British Columbia; an allied form, _Uropsilus_, inhabits East Thibet. _Anurosorex_ and _Scaptonyx_, are new genera from North China. _Extinct Species._--The common mole has been found fossil in bone-caves and diluvial deposits, and several extinct species of mole-like animals occur in the Miocene deposits of the South of France and of Germany. These have been described under the generic names _Dimylus_, _Geotrypus_, _Hyporissus_, _Galeospalax_; while _Palæospalax_ has been found in the Pliocene forest-beds of Norfolk {191}and Ostend. Species of _Myogale_ also occur from the Miocene downwards. FAMILY 22.--SORICIDÆ. (1 Genus, 11 Sub-genera, 65 Species.) GENERAL DISTRIBUTION. __________________________________/\__________________________________ / \ NEOTROPICAL| NEARCTIC |PALÆARCTIC | ETHIOPIAN | ORIENTAL | AUSTRALIAN SUB-REGIONS|SUB-REGIONS|SUB-REGIONS|SUB-REGIONS|SUB-REGIONS|SUB-REGIONS. -----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+------------ | | | | | -- -- 3 -- |1. 2. 3. 4 |1. 2. 3. 4 |1. 2. 3. 4 |1. 2. 3. 4 |-- -- -- -- | | | | |