Mammals from Southeastern Alaska

ROLLIN H. BAKER and JAMES S. FINDLEY

The University of Kansas Museum of Natural History received from J. R. Alcorn and Albert A. Alcorn a sizable collection of mammals taken in the summer of 1951 in Alaska. In addition to visiting localities at which they had collected in 1947 and 1948 (see Baker, Univ. Kansas Publ., Mus. Nat. Hist., 5:87-117, 1951) the Alcorns obtained specimens from localities not previously visited in the vicinity of Anchorage and Haines and from Sullivan Island, a small, timbered island in the Lynn Canal. A part of the funds for field work was made available by the Kansas University Endowment Association. The loan of specimens for comparative study from the Biological Surveys Collection of the United States National Museum is acknowledged.

Sorex obscurus alascensis Merriam. Dusky Shrew.—Comparison of two specimens from 7 miles SSE Haines and eight from Sullivan Island (six from the northeast end of the island and two from the southeast end) with topotypes of Sorex obscurus longicauda Merriam from Wrangell, Alaska, and with topotypes of Sorex obscurus alascensis from Yakutat, Alaska, shows that our specimens are intermediate between the two named kinds. However in nine of ten characters these specimens more closely resemble S. o. alascensis than S. o. longicauda. Measurements of specimens from Wrangell and from localities progressively northward along the Alaskan coast reveal a decrease in size of the skull in a clinal fashion. Specimens from Sullivan Island are larger than those from the mainland south of Haines, which are in turn larger than specimens from 9 miles W and 4 miles N of Haines (reported upon by Baker, op. cit.). No step is apparent in this cline and assignment of specimens must be made on a somewhat arbitrary basis. Specimens from Juneau, Alaska, in the Biological Surveys Collection of the United States National Museum, were assigned by Jackson (N. Amer. Fauna, 51: 128, 1928) to S. o. alascensis but seem to us to be closer to S. o. longicauda.

Sorex palustris navigator (Baird). Water Shrew.—Two males taken on August 5, at Peters Creek, elevation 300 ft., 20 miles NE of Anchorage provide a northwestern extension of the known range of this species. In external and cranial characters the males resemble S. p. navigator from 9 miles W and 4 miles N of Haines, Alaska, and from Washington County, Idaho. The specimens from Peters Creek do not agree with the description of Sorex alaskanus Merriam as given by Jackson (op. cit.:189) although one, a second year animal, has the lambdoidal crests exceptionally well developed, as does S. alaskanus.