98 



cats and owls do not discriminate between shrews and mice, even if 

 the farmer does; and so the shrews are likely to become less plentiful 

 as settlement becomes more dense. I have frequently found dead 

 shrews in hollow trees occupied by the screech-owl." (Bull. 129, 

 Kansas Experiment (Station, p. 394, 1905.) 



Samuel N. Rhodes.. "This species (Short-tailed Shrew) stands 

 pre-eminent above all others of our mammals in its abundance and 

 universality of distribution in all conceivable situations. Not a place 

 have I trapped over in the two states (New Jersey and Pennsylvania) 

 but what it was among the first species to be caught. It is found in 

 our deepest, coldest mountain ravines, on the stony, barren moun- 

 tain top, in the banks and valleys of low tidewater streams and the 

 maritime marshes, and delights in roving from the cool sphagnum bogs 

 of the New Jersey cedar swamps, where the temperature may be 

 below 60 degrees, to the hot sand barrens of the adjoining fields with 

 a midday heat of 110 degrees. Forest and plain, sand and clay, barren 

 or fruitful fields, back woods and dooryard, heat and cold, wet and 

 dry, day and night, have common charms for this little cosmopolite. 



"It is supposed by some observers that the fetid odor emitted by 

 certain glands of this species, more particularly the male, causes its 

 rejection by all preying animals, as cats, dogs, foxes, minks, skunks, 

 weasels, owls and hawks. To a degree this is true, and I have found 

 them lying dead in open places in the woodland or along lanes, paths 

 and roads where they had evidently been dropped by foxes, and owls, 

 as the wounds in the body showed. That they are not always rejected 

 may be seen by examining the lists of stomach contents and pellets 

 or rejects of several species of hawks and owls. Some cats 

 and dogs will eat them. The most offensive males may be 

 rejected, and I doubt not this odor has a deterrent effect 

 upon would-be offenders, acting as a preservative of the species. The 

 more I observe and inquire into the economy of the large mole shrew, 

 the more I am convinced that it is locally the most potent factor in 

 preserving the economic equilibrium among the smaller mammalia 

 which the Creator established as conserving the highest good of the 

 greatest number. 



"It is surprising how few, even among very intelligent people, 

 have the remotest conception of what constitutes a shrew. I venture 

 that ninety per cent, of the persons I have conversed with on the 

 subject have had no other idea of shrews than the kind depicted in 

 Shakespeare's comedy, and when I gravely state to them that I have 

 caught so many shrews the effect is rather amusing. Though rarely 

 seen, even by the most curious observers of nature, the subject of 

 this article far outnumbers any other species of native mammal found 

 in eastern North America. Like other members of the family it is 



