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The Identity of the Enigmatic ''Black Shrew'' (Sorex Niger Ord, 1815)

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The Identity of the Enigmatic ''Black Shrew'' (Sorex Niger Ord, 1815) PROCEEDINGS OF THE BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 126(1):1–10. 2013. The identity of the enigmatic ‘‘Black Shrew’’ (Sorex niger Ord, 1815) Neal Woodman United States Geological Survey Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. 20013-7012, U.S.A., e-mail: [email protected] Abstract.—The scientific name Sorex niger Ord, 1815 (Mammalia, Soricidae) was originally applied to a North American species that George Ord called the ‘‘Black Shrew.’’ The origin of the name ‘‘Black Shrew,’’ however, was obscure, and Samuel Rhoads subsequently wrote that the species represented by this name could not be determined. The names Sorex niger Ord and Black Shrew have since been mostly forgotten. Two of Ord’s contemporaries, however, noted that Ord’s use of these names probably alluded to Benjamin Smith Barton’s Black Shrew, whose discovery near Philadelphia was announced by Barton in 1806. Examination of two unpublished illustrations of the Black Shrew made by Barton indicates that the animal depicted is Blarina brevicauda (Say, 1822). Had the connection between Ord’s and Barton’s names been made more clearly, one of the most common mammals in eastern North America would bear a different scientific name today. This connection also would have affected the validity of Sorex niger Horsfield, 1851. While Sorex niger Ord remains a nomen nudum, the animal it referenced can now be identified. Keywords: Eulipotyphla, Guthrie’s Geography, nomenclature, Soricidae, Soricomorpha, Suncus montanus, taxonomy, Zoology of North America As part of my continuing study of the herein, the Black Shrew was described by taxonomy and systematics of American one natural historian (Barton 1806) and shrews (Mammalia, Soricidae), I under- provided with a scientific name—Sorex took to determine the nature and status of niger Ord (1815)—by another, but the two the holotypes of two of the earliest species names were insufficiently linked for subse- of shrews originally documented by pre- quent generations of biologists to appreci- served specimens from North America— ate their connection, and both names fell Sorex brevicaudus Say, 1822 (¼ Blarina out of use. Had the relationships between brevicauda) and Sorex parvus Say, 1822 ( ¼ the two names been more clearly expressed Cryptotis parvus)—and to correct biblio- in print, one of the most common small graphic information associated with the mammals in eastern North America—the publication of these names (Woodman 2009, 2010). During that work, I came Northern Short-tailed Shrew, Blarina bre- across several enigmatic references to the vicauda—would have a different scientific ‘‘Black Shrew,’’ the basis for which was name today. By examining the short potentially relevant to the systematic history of the Black Shrew and providing status of Sorex brevicaudus, but ‘‘Black a connection between the name and the Shrew’’ is not a name that clearly corre- living animal, this paper makes sense of sponds to any species of North American the confusion surrounding the Black soricid recognized today. As I document Shrew. 2 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON Materials and Methods and other printed works. Ord also provid- ed one short paragraph each for fish and Archives and printed collections of insects, ‘‘noting a few of the most interest- materials used for this study are under ing species.’’ He did not, however, provide the care of the Joseph F. Cullman 3rd comprehensive systematic lists for these Library of Natural History, National two taxa, because, ‘‘the latter is of course Museum of Natural History, Washington, impossible, and a list of the fish would not D.C.; the Dibner Library of the History of be sufficiently interesting to compensate Science and Technology, National Muse- for the room it would occupy’’ (Ord um of American History, Washington, 1815:360). Most of Ord’s ‘‘Zoology of D.C.; the Special Collections Research North America’’ was reprinted in the last Center, Georgetown University Library, American edition of Guthrie’s Geography Washington, D.C.; the American Philo- (Guthrie 1820), although that work lacks sophical Society Library, Philadelphia, the three lists of vertebrate species, ren- Pennsylvania; and the Library Company dering it of limited taxonomic value. of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Each species listed in the 1815 ‘‘Zoology of North America’’ is represented by a common name followed by a scientific Ord’s (1815) Zoology of North America name. While Ord compiled most of the and the Black Shrew scientific names from other sources, he also coined a number of unique combinations The first systematic accounting of the (Baird 1857, Rhoads 1894b). Among his terrestrial vertebrates of North America by new mammal names, for example, are such an American natural historian was pub- iconic North American species as the lished anonymously in 1815 by the Phila- Pronghorn, Antilope Americanus Ord, delphia naturalist George Ord (b. 1781, 1815 (¼ Antilocapra americana); Black- d.1866) in the second volume of what is tailed Prairie Dog, Arctomys Ludoviciana generally, but incorrectly, referenced as the Ord, 1815 (¼ Cynomys ludovicianus); and second American edition of ‘‘Guthrie’s Meadow Vole, Mus Pennsylvanica Ord, Geography’’ (Guthrie 1815). Ord’s (1815) 1815 (¼ Microtus pennsylvanicus). Samuel contribution, entitled ‘‘Zoology of North N. Rhoads (1894a, b) recognized the America,’’ consists in part of three system- taxonomic importance of Ord’s (1815) atic listings of 816 animals he recognized, contribution, and, citing the scarcity of organized into three taxonomic classes: original copies of the 1815 edition of 170 mammals, 572 birds, and 74 amphib- Guthrie’s Geography,hereprintedthe ians and reptiles (both groups under ‘‘Zoology of North America’’ based on ‘‘Class Amphibia’’). Although the species Ord’s personal annotated copy (Rhoads inventories were compiled from a variety 1894b). He added an introduction as well of other systematic works, primarily Tur- as an appendix in which he provided ton (1806), they also included new mate- critical commentary and elaborated on rial, such as animals described in the the identities and synonymies of the official account of Lewis and Clark’s animals Ord listed. In a paper in The expedition through the Louisiana Territo- American Naturalist, Rhoads (1894a) sum- ry (Lewis et al. 1814). In a section marized the proposed taxonomic changes following each list, Ord presented short for mammals based on his study of Ord descriptions and natural history accounts (1815). Unfortunately, Rhoads (1894b) for selected species, many of which are consistently referred to Ord’s ‘‘Zoology quoted directly from Lewis et al. (1814), of North America’’ as the ‘‘North Amer- Pennant (1784–1785), Wilson (1808–1814), ican Zoology,’’ thereby confusing genera- VOLUME 126, NUMBER 1 3 tions of taxonomists regarding the real title ity to trace the source of the name of Ord’s work, which appears on page 291 effectively determined the nomenclatural of both the original and the reprinted fate of Sorex niger, and the Black Shrew editions (Ord 1815, Rhoads 1894b). was subsequently forgotten. There the One of the mammals listed in ‘‘Zoology matter rested, even after information of North America’’ is the ‘‘Black Shrew,’’ regarding the origin of the name and the to which Ord (1815:291) gave the scientific identity of the species resurfaced (Wood- name Sorex niger. No further reference, man 2009). In fact, early nineteenth footnote, description, or other explanation century Philadelphia naturalists probably accompanies this name, and Ord (1815) knew exactly to what Ord (1815) was did not mention this animal in the natural referring. Had Ord clarified his reference history section that follows the list. Subse- or provided his own description of the quent to Ord’s (1815) ‘‘Zoology of North Black Shrew, his Sorex niger would be in America,’’ there are only three explicit common use today. references to the Black Shrew and S. niger Ord in the systematic literature, after which these names disappear. The first Barton’s Black Shrew two occur in James’s (1822) Account of an Expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky After returning to Philadelphia, some Mountains and Godman’s (1826) American primary participants in the 1819–1820 Natural History. In both cases, the Black Stephen H. Long Expedition to the Rocky Shrew is briefly mentioned in a description Mountains met to compile a comprehen- of Sorex brevicaudus Say, 1822, which is sive narrative of their journey for publica- tentatively compared to the Black Shrew. tion. Within the two volumes they Neither Harlan (1825) nor Bachman eventually published (James 1822), 54 (1837) nor Baird (1857) took any notice new species of animals and fossil organ- of the Black Shrew. The third, and last, isms that had been discovered during the reference is Rhoads’s (1894b) annotated expedition were formally named and de- reprinting of ‘‘Zoology of North Ameri- scribed by the Philadelphia naturalist ca.’’ Apparently unaware of the earlier Thomas Say (b. 1787, d. 1834), either in mentions in Barton (1806), James (1822), footnotes or in a combination of text and and Godman (1826), Rhoads (1894b: footnotes (Woodman 2010). These ac- appendix, p. 15) was unable to determine counts include the descriptions of two the origin of the name ‘‘Black Shrew,’’ new species of shrews—Sorex brevicaudus although he speculated that Ord was and Sorex parvus—from Engineer Canton- referring to a pre-Linnean description of ment along the Missouri River in modern an Eastern Mole (Scalopus aquaticus)ora Nebraska. Say’s report of the discovery of Star-nosed Mole (Condylura cristata): these two shrews was important at the time ‘‘Black Shrew, Sorex niger.’’ Not mentioned in because it doubled (Harlan 1825) or tripled Turton nor in Pennant, nor elsewhere that I can (Godman 1826) the number of document- find, unless it refers to the ‘‘Talpa Virginianus ed species of North American soricids. niger supinus’’ of Seba (Thes., II, p. 51) quoted in Within his description of the Short-tailed the synonymy of Scalops (‘‘Sorex’’) aquaticus of earlier authors, and which originated, perhaps, in Shrew, Sorex brevicaudus, Say (1822:164, a specimen of Condylura cristata.
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