APPENDIX. 449 



Dame of "aquations " is essentially inappropriate. With us, the 

 animal is confined to the highest and driest of our upland fields, and 

 appears to have a decided aversion even to damp soils. 



Hairy-tailed Mole. Scapanus Breweri. 



This species is far less common than the preceding, and of late 

 years I have seen no specimens of it. 



Star-nosed Mole. Condylura cristata. 



This curious animal is essentially an aquatic species, as observed 

 by me. It frequents only the low, wet meadows, in which it bur- 

 rows as extensively as the scalops does in the upland. I have occa- 

 sionally found openings to its burrows beneath the surface of the 

 water, and know, from recent observation, that the animal is an 

 excellent swimmer. 



I am convinced that this species hibernates, and often the mead- 

 ows in which its winter nests are situated are covered with water 

 for from two to four days at a time. Such periods of submergence 

 do not appear to affect the hibernating moles in any way ; but a sum- 

 mer freshet of like duration invariably proves fatal to great numbers 

 of them. 



Shrew. Blarina brevicauda. 



The statement made in the body of the book, that I have never 

 found a shrew near home, no longer holds good; but I let it stand, 

 for the fact that I have recently seen and captured a specimen is all 

 that I can say. On the 10th of August, 1883, my son brought me a 

 dead shrew which he had found, and on the 30th of September fol- 

 lowing, while listening to the rose-breasted grosbeaks that were 

 singing in the woods near by, I saw a small mammal leap by me. 

 Its movements were not like those of a mouse, and I gave chase. 

 It endeavored to hide in the heaps of loose dead leaves, but was 

 easily captured. It proved to be a short-tailed shrew, and is the 

 only living specimen I have ever seen. 



Flying Squirrel. Sciuropterus volucella. 



I have recently had my attention called to the small size of the 

 flying squirrels found here, as compared with the dimensions given 

 by Audubon and Bachman, Godman, and others. It would certainly 

 seem as if they had shrunken considerably during the past fifty 

 years. Is this due to the fact that food is less abundant and the en- 

 vironment less favorable ? 



