426 Field Museum or Natural History — Zoology, Vol. XL 



that the Shrew had no difficulty in keeping alongside, and soon had him 

 by the ear. The mouse rolled and kicked and scratched and bit, but 

 to no avail. The Shrew was evidently much pleased and forthwith 

 began to devour the ear. When he had it about half eaten-off the 

 mouse again tore himself free ; but his inveterate little foe did not suffer 

 him to escape. This time the Shrew clambered up over his back 

 and was soon at work consuming the remainder of the ear. This being 

 satisfactorily accomplished, he continued to push on in the same direc- 

 tion till he had cut through the skull and eaten the brains, together 

 with the whole side of the head and part of the shoulder. This com- 

 pleted his first meal, which occupied not quite fifteen minutes after the 

 death of the mouse. As soon as he had finished eating I again placed 

 him upon the scale and found that he weighed exactly 12. grammes — 

 an increase of .80 gramme. 



"The Shrew was half an hour in tiring the mouse, and another half 

 hour in killing him. But it must be remembered that he was not 

 fully grown, and was doubtless, on this account, longer in capturing 

 and killing his victim than would have been the case had he been an 

 adult. Still, it is clear that a Shrew could never catch mice on open 

 ground. His small size, however, enables him readily to enter their 

 holes and to follow them to their nests and the remotest ramifications 

 of their burrows, where, having no escape, he can slay them with 

 fearful certainty."* 



Regarding the habits of this species Robert Kennicott writes: 

 ''The short-tailed shrew abounds both in prairie and woods. I am 

 unable to say whether it exists far out on the larger prairies ; but it has 

 been found in abundance several miles from any woodland. It is fond of 

 high ground, and is not at all aquatic. I have been unable to find 

 traces of it in wet places, such as swamps and the edges of sloughs, 

 within a few rods of which it is numerous. I have nowhere seen more 

 of its tracks than on some white-oak ridges lying several miles west 

 of Lake Michigan. But even where most numerous, it is little known; 

 and, indeed, it is no easy matter to get sight of one of them at any 

 time. In turning over old logs, for hours, in search of them, I have 

 rarely been able to see one; and then only when it was retreating at 

 such speed as to generally escape in some of the numerous path-ways 

 which lead in every direction from a log thus chosen for its resting 

 place, or under which it may happen to take refuge on a journey by 

 day. These, like other shrews, are often found lying dead on the 

 ground, both in winter and summer, having been killed by birds or 

 beasts of prey, and left uneaten on account of their disagreeable odor; 



* Mamm. Adirondack Reg., 1886, pp. 166-168. 



