Chapin: Staten Island Mammals 6y 



would settle the cricket's fate, and in a few minutes nothing 

 would remain of it except a few of the harder parts of the shell. 



Only a few days elapsed before the shrew itself died; and 

 though I have attempted to trap some more of the same species on 

 Lake's Island, I have secured only a couple of individuals of the 

 larger and more abundant form, Blarina brevicauda, which is to 

 be found in exactly the same situations as its diminutive congener. 



Condylura cristata. ' Star-nosed Mole. 



Attention should be called to the mention, in the Proceedings 

 for October, 1906, of a star-nosed mole's skull that was found in 

 a barred owl's nest at Great Kills, Staten Island. There is, I am 

 told, but one earlier record for this peculiar mole on our island. 

 On Long Island, too, it is rarely found, for there are as yet but 

 two published records of its occurrence there. 



Some time after the discovery of the above mentioned skull, 

 in examining some owl pellets, I came across another skull of the 

 same kind of mole. Unfortunately it was contained in a pellet, 

 the history of which was lost, though I know it came from Staten 

 Island, and probably from the south side. Recently, in some 

 pellets picked up beneath the roost of a barred owl at Annadale, 

 Staten Island, on March 15, 1908, I found the mandibles and 

 humerus of a third star-nosed mole. 



This evidence is quite reliable, for barred owls wander but 

 little, and it seems to show that the star-nosed mole is not so rare 

 on Staten Island as we supposed. 



