THE WATER-SHREW 



33i 



on the snow when the thermometer indicated 20 below zero. This peculiar habit 

 is correlated with equally marked peculiarities in the diet of this species, which 

 frequents both the dense pine forests of the uncultivated districts, and the cleared 

 tracts of the inhabited regions. This shrew, writes Dr. Merriam, " seeks its food 

 both by day and night ; and, although the greater part of its life is doubtless 

 spent under ground, or at least under logs and leaves, and amongst the roots of trees 

 and stumps, it occasionally makes excursions upon the surface, and I have met and 

 secured many specimens in broad daylight. It subsists upon beechnuts, insects, 

 earthworms, slugs, sow bugs, and mice, and can in no way be considered other than 

 as a friend to the farmer. ' ' 



THE WATER- SHREW. 

 (Natural size.) 



THE WATER-SHREW . 

 Genus Crossopus 



The water-shrew (Crossopus fodiens) is the sole representative of a genus 

 agreeing with some of the short-tailed shrews in possessing thirty teeth, but distin- 

 guished by the small ears not being truncated, by the long tail, and also by the 

 fringes of long hair on the under surface of the latter and on the feet. This shrew, 

 as its name implies, is of thoroughly aquatic habits ; the fringes of stiff hair on the 

 tail and limbs being designed to afford aid in swimming. In length it measures 

 about three and one-fourth inches, exclusive of the long tail. Owing to the cir- 

 cumstances, that while in most cases the under parts of the body are white, while 

 in others they partake more or less completely of the black hue of the back, it was 



