88 REPORT OF NEW JERSEY STATE MUSEUM. 



lying in front of the large molars) are twice as large as the fourth 

 and fifth while in personatus their size decreases gradually. 



This is a mountain species rarer than personatus and known as 

 a New Jersey species only from two specimens obtained by Mr. 

 S. N. Rhoads at Greenwood Lake, Passaic county, and at Cul- 

 ver's Gap, Sussex county. 



Its habits are doubtless the same as those of the last. 

 Sorex fumeus Rhoads, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1897, p. 

 33. — Rhoads Mam. Pa. and N. J., 1903, p. 190. 



Genus Blarina Gray. 



Short-Tailed Shrews. 



Blarina brevicauda (Say). 



Short-Tailed Shrew. 



Plate 39, Fig. 2. 



Length 5 inches. Rather stout, tail only about one-quarter the 

 length of the head and body. Sooty plumbeous, slightly lighter 

 below, front teeth chestnut colored at the tips. 



This little animal, popularly regarded as a mouse though at 

 once separated by the velvety, silver gray, mole-like fur, is abund- 

 ant throughout the State in woods, edges of stream and bogs, etc. 

 It lives in burrows, and like all the shrew tribe is seldom to be 

 seen. It is carnivorous in the main, eating insects, snails, and, in 

 captivity at least, other individuals of its own species as well as 

 meadow mice larger than itself. On all counts it would seem to 

 be a distinctly useful litle animal and well worthy of protection. 



Blarina talpoides Abbott, Cook's Geol. of N. J., 1868, p. 752. 



Blarina brevicauda Abbott, A Naturalist's Rambles, 1885, p. 

 449. — Rhoads, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1897, p. 32. — 

 Rhoads Mam. of Pa. and N. J., 1903, p. 192. 



