MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. 1 95 



Hyde Park, Ontario, to have eaten three times its own weight of meadow 

 mice in twenty-four hours. 



In view of their great numbers we naturally query what economic relations 

 they bear to man and to nature. Undoubtedly the purely mechanical effect 

 of their universal burrowing and rooting in the soil is an important factor in 

 that economy. It is known that they subsist to some extent on vegetable 

 food, chiefly nuts, but they do only indirect damage to agriculture by dis- 

 turbing the roots of plants. On the other hand, there is little doubt that 

 they destroy an amazing number of noxious grubs, beetles, and worms, and 

 it is probable that the part they play as underground scavengers is import- 

 ant. They also do much in checking the increase of the native mice of our 

 meadows and woodlands. 



Of the domestic habits of the mole shrew we know very little, and that, in 

 a general way, would seem to point toward anything but conjugal felicity or 

 fidelity, and their fraternal relations may safely be set down as far below par. 



A friend of mine who has long peered curiously into nature's secrets with- 

 out a mouse-trap, relates that the only time he ever saw one of these creatures 

 alive, its hind foot was being slowly chewed by another of the same species, 

 which had firmly anchored itself underground in a position which would 

 allow it to enjoy the repast without observation. The squeaks and struggles 

 of its victim first attracted the notice of my friend. 



The mole shrew builds a nest of grass and leaves in dry, underground situ- 

 ations, to which it resorts not only for its own shelter, but for that of its 

 young. Four to six young compose a litter, and, as with our native mice, 

 the young are born at all seasons of the year, though less frequently in win- 

 ter." — Rhoads. 



I may add that they eat a good many of the various genera of snails and 

 undoubtedly devour certain of the salamanders and other batrachians and 

 reptiles which haunt their burrows. For a discussion as to the false charges 

 made against this animal by agriculturists read my previous remarks under 

 habits of the northern pine vole, Microtus pinetonim scalopsoides. 



Desc7'iption of species. — For a general account see above quotation. The 

 color is uniform, sooty slate-brown above, more ashy below. When the fur is 

 smoothed flat it has the peculiar sheen or gloss of the mole. Specimens 

 from southern N. J. are lighter colored and less sooty, nearly light slate in 

 some cases. Having examined about 400 specimens of the large eastern 

 Blarina from many localities between Quebec and Virginia, I incline to the 

 belief that Sorex ialpoides of Copper should apply to this animal as a sub- 

 species or race of typical brevicaiida found in the Great Plains region. The 

 specific separation of B. carolinensis, which I have previously advocated, 

 removes the only objection cited by Merriam (N. Amer. Fauna, No. 10, p. 

 11) which may be considered as valid against this course. The varying dif- 



