414 Field Museum of Natural History • — Zoology, Vol. XI. 



The food of these Shrews consists largely of worms and insects, but 

 they also eat flesh and probably devour young Mice and the young 

 of the smaller ground-nesting birds whenever they find them. Dr. C. 

 Hart Merriam says: "Not only are these agile and restless little Shrews 

 voracious and almost insatiable, consuming incredible quantities of 

 raw meat and insects with great eagerness, but they are veritable 

 cannibals withal, and will even slay and devour their own kind. I 

 once confined three of them under an ordinary tumbler. Almost im- 

 mediately they commenced fighting, and in a few minutes one was 

 slaughtered and eaten b}'- the other two. Before night one of these 

 killed and ate its only surviving companion, and its abdomen was 

 much distended by the meal. Hence in less than eight hours one of 

 these tiny wild beasts had attacked, overcome, and ravenously con- 

 sumed two of its own species, each as large and heavy as itself" (/. c, 



p. 174). 



Shrews possess scent glands, secreting a strong, musky smelling 

 liquid, which are situated on each side of the body near the fore leg. On 

 account of their odor they are regarded as undesirable food by most 

 mammals and are rarely eaten. 



Specimens examined from Illinois and Wisconsin: 

 Illinois — Fox Lake, 3; Camp Logan, Lake Co., 8=11. 

 Wisconsin — Sumner, 2 ; Milton, Rock Co., i; Solon Springs, Douglas 

 Co., 13 (7 in alcohol); vSayner, Vilas Co., 17; Spread Eagle, Florence 

 Co., 3; Beaver Dam, Dodge Co., i; Conover, Vilas Co., i; Lac 

 Vieux Desert, Vilas Co., 5; (M.P.M.) Cataline, Marinette Co., 4; 

 Newport, Door Co., i; Prairie du Sac, Sauk Co., 4; Prescott, Pierce 

 Co., 4; Kelly Brook, Oconto Co., 2; Milwaukee Co., i; Delavan, 

 Walworth Co., i; (S. C.) Beaver Dam, Dodge Co., 20 = 80. 



Sorex richardsonii Bachman. 

 Richardson's Shrew. 



Sorex richardsonii Bachman, Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., VII, Pt. II, 1837, p. 383. 

 Miller, N. Amer. Fauna, No. 10, 1895, p. 48 (Minnesota). Merriam, N. 

 Amer. Fauna, No. 10, .1895, p. 63 (Minnesota, etc.). Snyder, Bull. Wis. Nat. 

 Hist. Soc, II, 1902, p. 123 (Wisconsin). Jackson, Bull. Wis. Nat. Hist. Soc, 

 VI, 1908, p. 30 (Wisconsin). 



Type locality — Unknown; probably plains of Saskatchewan, Canada. 



Distribution — From Wisconsin and western Ontario through Minne- 

 sota and Manitoba northwest to Alberta and northward nearly to 

 the Arctic Circle; exact limits unknown. 



