58 JOUENAL OF THE MlTCHELL SoCIETY lOctoher 



land fields, average length about 6 3/4 inches of which the tail con- 

 stitutes only 2 7/8 inches. This is a potential menace as are all its 

 near relatives to alfalfa and other hay crops. 



The smaller of the shorttailed mice occurring here is the pine 

 mouse which is much smaller than the meadow mouse and with still 

 shorter ears and tail. It is more subterranean in its habits than the 

 other mice, both making burrows of its own and following the mole 

 runs under the surface of the ground. It is said to be a more of a 

 woodland species than the other mice, but is captured more or less 

 sporadically in field trapping. In many respects it is a more in- 

 sidious enemy than our other mice, for the damage it does to potatoes 

 (either kind) or peanuts is not apt to be noticed until the crop is dug 

 and empty shells alone are found. 



We now come to the jumping mouse which like the red mouse 

 seems to be untrappable in this locality, though specimens are not 

 infrequently found drowned in the barrels set for muskrats. This 

 is a yellowish species with the coarse harsh fur partly composed of 

 black hairs, and the underparts are yellowish white. The tail is 

 over half of the total length and the hind feet are proportionately 

 very large, its usual method of progression being by leaping like a 

 frog. The species seems to be mostly confined to lowgrounds or the 

 borders of small streams, and is not at all common, Raleigh being, 

 I believe, the most southern locality from which it is known. 



Of the shrews there are two groups, the longtailed shrews with the 

 tail more than one-third the total length and the ears more conspicu- 

 ous, and the short-tailed or mole shrews with the tail less than one- 

 fourth the length and the ears hidden by the fur, the latter look very 

 like diminutive moles, and are often mistaken for young moles by 

 the uninformed in spite of the marked difference in their forefeet 

 from those of a mole. 



Of the longtailed shrews we get at Raleigh only one species, the 

 smallest and rarest of our small mammals, Sorex longirostris, a little 

 animal only about 3 1/2 inches long of which the tail constitutes 

 1 1/4, the few specimens taken by me have all been caught in traps in 

 fields, none in woods. 



