66 



John B. Calhoun 



Away from the nari-ow drainage area the other four sectors were moderately 

 mesophytic. Deep leaf mold covered the entire forest floor. No attempt was 

 made to obtain a detailed cover map. Total timbering a year later for a 

 housing development revealed that many of the trees in the forest exceeded 

 150 years in age. 



It may be noted that both Peromyscus and Blarina tended to avoid the 

 more xerophytic areas, whereas Pitymys was more abundant in these 

 drier areas. However, it is interesting to note that no Blarina occurred in 

 the N to NW sector and yet quite a number were taken in the even more 



a = l2.5 FEET N 



O jO o 



s 

 Fig. 30. Schematic home ranges for Pitymys. 



xerophytic E to SW sectors. The marked clumping of Pitymys in the N to 

 NW sector suggests that a tendency toward colony formation in this very 

 subordinate species may actually serve to exclude from that region the 

 more dominant Blarina. 



However, despite such a local tendency for Pitymys to cluster, no over- 

 lapping of the 1-sigma radius home ranges occurred anywhere in the study 

 plot. In fact, the mean interval between home range centers of nearest 

 neighbors is of the order of 4 sigma. This must mean that the probability of 

 one Pitymys associating with a neighbor is very low. With their larger 

 home ranges, there is more opportunity for Blarina to associate with others 



