Cleaves: The Least Shrew in Captivity 117 



mice were generally our reward, and one of these was kept cap- 

 tive for several months, in 1909, by Mr. James Chapin. But on 

 the occasion of the recent "round up," in which I unfortunately 

 did not take part, it was the good luck of the participants to 

 capture not only meadow mice but two of the rare little least 

 shrews; and it is of my few days' experience with these that I 

 would write. 



Before they were handed to me they had been roughly wrapped 

 up in a handkerchief and carried in a rather tight coat pocket. 

 This, coupled with the difficulty of creating a congenial artificial 

 environment and supplying proper food for the delicate little 

 creatures, may have some bearing on the fact that one survived 

 only three days, while the other lived until the morning of the 

 fifth day. But after being removed from the handkerchief they 

 were given a more roomy apartment in the shape of a breeding 

 cage for moths. At the bottom of the cage was placed a piece 

 of sod, which retained considerable green grass, and in one corner 

 a couple of handfuls of cotton. Although it was not expected 

 that the shrews would touch them, a number of kernels of Indian 

 corn were scattered about in another corner of the floor of the 

 cage. 



And now began the nightly search for earthworms, for these 

 make up a part of the approved diet of the least shrew. Each 

 evening I took a lantern and scouted about for " night walkers " 

 from one end of our yard to the other. But angleworms were 

 as scarce, so to speak, as " hens' teeth," for the ground was hard 

 and dry as the result of a long rainless spell, and the night air 

 was cold. However, the first search resulted in the capture of 

 seven worms, and only a half of one of these remained the next 

 evening. The next night only two worms were captured, and 

 when I examined the cage on Tuesday night (September 27) I 

 discovered that in addition to having done away with the worms 

 the shrews had attacked the kernels of corn, gnawing out, in 

 each case, only a part of the soft germ. From the first I had 

 observed that one of the shrews was indisposed and would remain 



