66 Staten Island Association of Arts and Sciences 



Staten Island, on May 30, 1906, two were found drowned in 

 .some flooded post holes. Some other recent captures are : 



J* Woodrow, S. L, September 15, 1907, James Chapin. 



'5 Lakes Id., S. I., September 18, 1907, James Chapin. 



'5 Woodrow, S. I., December 22, 1907, Alanson Skinner. 



$ Woodrow, S. I., March 14, 1908, Samuel Wort. 



The one found by Mr. Skinner, on December 22, 1907, was 

 lying dead in a freshly plowed field, where it had evidently been 

 hibernating. On March 14, 1908, Mr. Samuel Wort dug up a 

 jumping mouse at Woodrow. It was in a round nest, made of 

 catbrier (Smilax) leaves, and placed some eight or ten inches 

 beneath the surface of the ground. The individual caught at 

 Lake's Island, on September 18, 1907, was kept alive nearly two 

 months. As the weather grew cold, it began to spend a large 

 part of its time in the characteristic hibernating attitude, rolled 

 up in a ball, with its long hind legs embracing its head, and its 

 lengthy tail curled neatly about itself; but it died before winter 

 had set in. 



Blarina parva. Least Mole Shrew. 



In March, 1905, at the meeting of the Natural Science Associa- 

 tion, Mr. Wm. T. Davis announced that he had added another 

 mammal to the New York State list, by finding the least mole 

 shrew at Long Neck, Staten Island. Dr. Dowell also has a speci- 

 men from the same locality ; and so I naturally concluded that 

 they might be looked for on Lake's Island, which lies only a short 

 distance from Linoleumville, across the Fresh Kill. It was not 

 a great surprise, therefore, when Mr. Richard P. Smith dis- 

 covered one at that place, under an old piece of tar paper, on 

 September 15, 1907. We caught it without difficulty, and with 

 Mr. Smith's permission I took it home, for a living specimen 

 is generally considered somewhat of a rarity. It was a most 

 astonishing sight to watch this little shrew attack the live crickets 

 with which it was fed. Many of them were almost half as large 

 as their pursuer, and they were apparently discovered almost 

 wholly by the sense of smell, but one snap of the shrew's jaws 



