MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. 1 93 



1823. Sorex brevicandus Say, Long's Expedition Rocky Mountains, vol. i, 

 p. 164. 



1857. Blarina brevicauda Baird, Mammals North America, p. 42. 



Type locality. — Near Blair, Washington Co., Nebraska. 



Faunal distribution. — Canadian, transition and upper austral zones ; At- 

 lantic Ocean to Nebraska and Manitoba ; Quebec to Virginia ; replaced 

 southward by B. carolinensis, a distinct species. (See Proc. A. N. Sci., 

 Phila., 1897, pp. 310, 311.) 



Distribution in Pa. and N.J. — This species stands pre- eminent above all 

 others of our mammals in its combined abundance and universality of dis- 

 tribution in all conceivable situations. Not a place nave I trapped over in 

 the two states but what it was among the first species to be caught. It is 

 found in our deepest, coldest mountain ravines, on the stony, barren moun- 

 tain top, in the banks and valleys of low tidewater streams and the maritime 

 marshes, and delights in roving from the cool spagnum bogs of the N. J. 

 cedar swamps, where the temperature may be below 60°, to the hot sand 

 barrens of the adjoining fields with a midday heat of 110°. Forest and plain, 

 sand and clay, barren or fruitful field, back woods and dooryard, heat and 

 cold, wet and dry, day and night, have common charms for this cosmopoHte. 



Habits, etc. — It is supposed by some observers that the fetid odor emitted 

 by certain glands of this species, more particularly the male, causes its rejec- 

 tion by all preying animals as cats, dogs, foxes, minks, skunks, weasels, owls 

 and hawks. To a degree this is true, and I have found them lying dead in 

 open places in the woodland or along lanes, paths and roads where they had 

 evidently been dropped by foxes, and owls, as the wounds in the body 

 showed. That they are not always rejected may be seen by examining the 

 lists of stomach contents and pellets or rejects of several species of hawks 

 and owls. Some cats and dogs will eat them. The most offensive males may 

 be generally rejected, and I doubt not this odor has a deterrent effect upon 

 would-be offenders, acting as a preservative of the species. The more I ob- 

 serve and inquire into the economy of the large mole shrew the more I am 

 convinced that it is locally the most potent factor in preserving the economic 

 equilibrium among the smaller mammalia which the Creator established as 

 conserving the highest good of the greatest number. The following was con- 

 tributed to the " American Friend," of Phila. (Nov. 26, 1896, p. 1149). It 

 gives a brief sketch of the life-history of this interesting animal. 



"It is surprising how few, even among very intelligent people, have the re- 

 motest conception of what constitutes a shrew. I venture that ninety per 

 cent, of the persons I have conversed with on the subject have had no other 

 idea of shrews than the kind depicted in Shakespeare's comedy, and when I 

 gravely state to them that I have caught so many shrews the effect is rather 

 amusing. Though rarely seen, even by the most curious observers of nature, 



