On Blarina pyrrhonota and Echimys macrourus: Two Mammals incorrectly assigned to the Suriname Fauna.

When revising the Suriname mammals preserved in the collection of the Leiden Museum I also examined the type specimens of Echimys macrourus and Blarina pyrrhonota, described from Suriname by JENTINK in 1879 and 1910, respectively. As a result of this investigation I reached the conclusion that the two types are apparently incorrectly labelled as to locality. For Blarina pyrrhonota strongly resembles Sorex araneus Linnaeus from Europe, while Echimys macrourus shows a close resemblance to one of the forms of Rattus sabanus (Thomas), which has a wide distribution in the Malaysian subregion (see CHASEN, 1940, p. 164—167). In the literature dealing with Neotropical mammals, the systematic position of both Blarina pyrrhonota and Echimys macrourus has been the subject of much discussion, mainly based on assumptions, as no mammalogist since JENTINK has examined the types in question. Accordingly it seems of interest to give here a survey of these various discussions, and to render account of my own point of view. I am much indebted to Dr. R. G. VAN GELDER, Chairman and Assistant Curator of the American Museum of Natural History, New York, who was so kind as to send me on loan one of the specimens from the Mt. Duida region, Venezuela, which the late Dr. G. H. H. TATE provisionally considered to belong to JENTINK’S Echimys macrourus.