XLVIII. 

 Common Shrew, Cooper Shrew, or Masked Shrew. 



Sorex personatus I. G. St. Hilaire. 



(L. Sorex, a shrew; personatus, masked, probably because its eyes and ears are 

 hidden.) 



Sorex personatus I. Geoff. St. Hilaire, 1827, Mem. Mus. 

 His. Nat., Paris XV, p. 122. 

 Type Locality. — Eastern United States, probably New 

 York. 



French Canadian, la Musaraigne. 



The Family, Soricidce or Shrews, comprises small mouse- 

 like creatures, but most of them are smaller than any Mouse, 

 and in anatomy as different from 

 the Mice as a small Badger is from 

 a big gray Rabbit. This we should 

 realize if we could set together a 

 Mouse and a Shrew, each magni- 

 fied to the size of a sheep. Their 

 most striking peculiarity is the ab- 

 sence, or apparent absence, of eyes 

 and ears; next, their long sharp nose, and last, but of most 

 importance, their teeth. On comparing the skulls of Mouse 

 and Shrew we shall see more clearly the distinctive peculi- 

 arities of these. Even in color they differ, those of Mice 

 being clear yellow or whitish, while those of Shrews are 

 usually more or less stained with chestnut at the tips. 



Side by side on a large scale (Figs. 249 and 250) the 

 great divergencies of their skulls appear. They suggest the hip- 



1091 



