ANIMAL LIFE ABOUT DUNFORD'S FARM 291 



sort of a sharp metallic click, very high pitched, but not 

 loud. Probably it would not be heard or noticed by a 

 person standing under the bats when they were flying 

 high, though I have often heard it while watching them. 

 Some of those which I handled attempted to bite, but 

 though the teeth are sharp they are small, and the jaws 

 weak, and I do not think the little animal could inflict 

 a very sharp nip — not so sharp as that of a mouse. I 

 was anxious to learn something of the breeding habits 

 of this bat, but I could not find any traces of young 

 ones. There were certainly none at this time of year, 

 the end of August. 



Often when quietly watching the birds in the orchard 

 I noticed some exceedingly small creature rush over the 

 ground so quickly that it appeared as a mere shadow, 

 scarcely larger than a marble. It always started from 

 a lurking place under a bramble, tuft of grass or tree- 

 trunk, and disappeared into a similar refuge, so that I 

 could never get a clear view of it at rest. Its motions 

 were so sudden and peculiar that I thought it must be 

 a large ground-spider. After much trouble and many 

 attempts I caught this little animal in a butterfly net, 

 and found it to be a shrew-mouse, Sorex cooperi. So 

 exceedingly minute is this animal that I feel sure it is 

 much less in size than our English harvest-mouse, and 

 is therefore the smallest mammal living. It is a most 

 beautiful and graceful little thing, and that which I 

 captured w^as so overcome with terror that I feared it 

 would die with fright, and released it before I had fully 

 examined it. I soon found others, however, under the 

 guidance of an old negro, who knew where to look for 

 them. Their favourite haunt is in rotten timber lying 

 on the ground. They eat hollows into it, and there 

 form their nests, seeming to have sometimes as many 

 as seven or eight young. In every trunk where we 

 found them, however, there was always a colony, fifty 

 or sixty at least, which made their escape instantly, 

 seeming to roll over the ground, leaving their youno- 



