II 8 Staten Island Association of Arts and Sciences 



under the pile of cotton or under the sod while the other scurried 

 about the cage and attacked the worms. In fact, I am quite cer- 

 tain that this quiet individual ate little or no food and that his 

 death, which occurred some time on Wednesday, was caused by 

 starvation. My observations, then, were confined principally to 

 the more active and long-lived individual. He, too, stayed a 

 great deal under the cotton, but this was mostly in the daytime; 

 at night he became active, although sometimes he disliked to show 

 himself when a lamp was near. Two or three times I removed 

 the cotton and the sod, leaving no place for retreat, and, reaching 

 into the cage, touched and even stroked the little fellow on the 

 back. At no time did he endeavor to climb up the wire-screen 

 walls of the cage, and when my fingers touched him he stood 

 very still and did not seem in the least perturbed. Had this been 

 tried with a whitefooted mouse, probably the rim of the cage 

 would have been cleared with a single jump. However, a lamp 

 almost always stood close beside the box on these occasions (un- 

 less it was done by daylight), and the apparent tameness of the 

 subject may not have been tameness at all but a partial blindness 

 caused by the glare of the light. 



On Wednesday night I succeeded in catching five earthworms 

 and by the following evening the single shrew had devoured them 

 all. On several occasions I observed very closely the methods 

 employed by the captive in attacking and devouring a worm. 

 To watch closely the movements of the shrew it was necessary 

 to place a lamp near to the cage, and possibly on this account he 

 was not so active as he would otherwise have been ; but I am sure 

 that, even so, he was too energetic to suit his prey. Darting out 

 from his retreat beneath the cotton, he would seize a worm near 

 the head and tug away so hard that the shrew's feet would slip 

 from beneath him on the loose dirt on the floor of the cage. Sud- 

 denly he would release his grip and take hold in another place, the 

 worm writhing to no effect at each attack. Then the shrew would 

 scamper to cover, but in a second reappear from beneath the cot- 

 ton and dart again at the worm, always taking hold at the head. 



