358 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA [No. 65 



placet, and the contents of a few stomachs examined. So far as 

 shown their food consists of insects, snails, and other forms of small 

 animal life. 



SOREX BENDIRII PALMERI MEIRRIAM 



PALMEB'S SHREW 



Sorex (Atophyrax) bendirii palmeri Merriam, North Amer. Fauna No. 10, 

 p. 97, 1895. 



Type. Collected at Astoria, Oreg., by T. S. Palmer, July 29, 1889. 



General characters. Size largest of Oregon shrews, slightly larger and darker 

 than bendirii; skull conspicuously larger and heavier. Color : Upper parts black 

 or blackish, lower parts scarcely if at all lighter ; feet dark brown ; tail blackish 

 all round. 



Measurements. Adult male, type : Total length, 165 mm ; tail, 73 ; foot, 20.5. 



Distribution and habitat. The coast region and low country west 

 of the Cascades of Oregon and the extreme northwest corner of 

 California, in the coast and valley country west of the Cascades, 

 except the upper Kogue Kiver Valley (fig. 85). A Transition Zone 

 .species of the most humid part of the State. 



General habits. In the humid region where these shrews live they 

 may be found under logs in the dense forest, in muddy places around 

 springs, under stream banks, in thickets of alder, or in tall grass 

 wherever there is cover and food. Near Eugene they were caught 

 under logs and in Microtm runways in tall grass, on the side of 

 Spencer Butte and at McKenzie Bridge in the heavy forest, often at 

 a distance from any water. At Oregon City Streator caught one 

 near a spring and at Astoria A. K. Fisher took one in thick vegeta- 

 tion on the bank of a stream. Near the top of Chintimini Mountain 

 one ran down the trail ahead of the writer but escaped into a burrow 

 before it could be caught. They are rarely seen except when taken 

 in traps, and practically nothing i# known of their habits. 



SOREX TROWBRIDGII TROWBRIDGII BAIED 

 TROWBRIDGE'S SHREW 



Sorex tr&wbridgii Baird, Mamm. North Amer., p. 13, 1857. 



Type. Collected at Astoria, Clatsop County, Oreg., received from W. P. 

 Trowbridge; without date but entered in museum catalog July 1855. Cotype 

 collected June 10, 1855, by James Wayne. 



General characters. Size medium, tail long, nearly as long as head and body ; 

 feet small and slender, not conspicuously fringed ; nose long and pointed ; eyes 

 minute ; ears not wholly concealed ; fur soft and fine over whole body ; feet and 

 tail very thinly haired. Color : In winter pelage dull blackish or sooty plumbe- 

 ous all over body, but slightly paler below ; in summer pelage more brownish ; 

 feet pale ; tail dark brown above and whitish below. 



Measurements. Adult female from type locality : Total length, 130 mm ; tail, 

 59 ; foot, 14. Another, 115 ; 56 ; 13. 



Distribution and habitat. West of the Cascades from southwest- 

 ern British Columbia to northwestern California, covering practi- 

 cally all of Oregon west of the Cascades (fig. 86). They are most 

 abundant in the low-timbered country of humid Transition Zone, 

 where they are often caught in considerable numbers. 



At the type locality T. S. Palmer caught three specimens in July 

 1889, in a grassy spot under overhanging alders near the beach, and 

 back in the spruce woods under fallen logs. They were much less 



