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.