SHREW 



Family Soricidae. Shrews 



Size very small, including the smallest of mammals; muzzle 

 elongate; eye small but visible; ear small and often more pr 

 less concealed in the fur; form mouse-like; skull long and 

 narrow; anterior teeth highly specialized; zygomatic arches 

 wanting. 



Subfamily Soricinae 



Genus Sorex^ 

 Dentition: Incisors, |; Canines, J-; Premolars, f ; Molars, | = 32. 



Shrew. — Sorex personatus^ 



' and related forms. 



General Characters. — Size very small, except for Microsorex 

 the smallest of North American mammals; muzzle sharp and 

 pointed ; eyes minute ; ears nearly hidden in fur ; body slender ; 

 hands and feet small and delicate; tail proportionally long, 

 covered with hair; pelage soft and rather lax; color brownish 

 above, lighter below ; habit terrestrial ; movements quick. 



Color. — Sexes colored alike; some seasonal change in pelage. 



Upperparts practically uniform sepia brown, with very 

 faint sprinkling of lighter and darker hairs; hands and feet 

 whitish; upperside of tail like back. Underparts grayish to 

 buffy and passing gradually into darker color of upperparts; 

 underside of tail yellowish white. Pelage everywhere slate- 

 colored at base. 



In winter pelage, slightly darker and less brown than in 

 summer. 



Immature pelage very much like that of adults. 



Measurements. — Sexes of equal size. Total length, 4 

 inches; tail vertebrae, 1.6 inches; hind foot, .5 inch. 



Geographical Distribution. — Most of North America. 



Food. — Insects, adults and larval forms, and such other 

 animal food as it can capture. 



^ For a revision of the shrews see Merriam, North American Fauna, 

 No. ID, 1895. This monograph is so old that it can scarcely be con- 

 sidered as authoritative today. 



^According to Jackson, Jour. Mammalogy, Feb. 1925, p. 55, Sorex 

 personatus should be changed to Sorex cinereus, with corresponding 

 changes in all of the subspecies of personatus. 



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