1124 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



been born early in May. Another female, caught near the same 

 place, April 21, 1884, contained 5 large embryos which would 

 certainly have been born within ten days. They weighed 

 together 4.20 grammes. I procured a half-grown young, 

 February 10, 1884, which must have been born late in the fall. 

 Hence, two or three litters are probably produced each season. 

 The young born in autumn do not breed in the spring following, 

 as I have demonstrated by repeated dissections of both sexes." 

 Rhoads believes that the young are born at any season 

 of the year.^ Bachman states' that they "are occasionally 

 turned up by the plough on the plantations of the South, when 

 they utter a faint squeaking cry like young Mice, and make 

 awkward and scrambling attempts to escape, trying to conceal 

 themselves in any tuft of grass, or under the first clod of earth 

 that may present itself." 



To this I can add one or two scraps of information. On 

 July 21, at Cos Cob, I captured a female that was evidently 

 nursing, and on October 20, at Rat Portage, Ont., I secured a 

 large male that was in rut. 



In the above-mentioned investigations made September, 

 1908, the capture of each young Blarina ended the digging at 

 that hole, but, in the cases where an adult was taken, the signs 

 of occupancy continued until after the capture of a second. 

 These two were male and female, evidently living together, 

 although there w ere no signs of sexual activity. One female, 

 taken September 21, had, as below, 5 embryos of about half- 

 time development. 



ShuH's paper also implies that the species lives in pairs 

 during w inter. Thus we are far on the way to proving life-long 

 partnership. 



The diet of the Short-tailed Shrew is chieHy insects and 

 worms, but it will eat any kind of living food that it can find 

 and master, preying largely, as will be seen, on Field-mice, 

 which equal or exceed it in weight. 



*Mam. Penna., 1903, p. 195. ' Quad. N. A., Vol. II, 1S40, p. 177 



