526 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL. No. 1032 



Apparently Chicago receives the same preci- 

 pitation as the surrounding prairie region. 

 Unfortunately no hourly readings of relative 

 humidity are available and the period of bi- 

 hourly values shown in Table GXII. is much 

 too short to establish with any degree of accu- 

 racy values for the various hours. A table of 

 average monthly and annual relative humid- 

 ities for 15 cities in the United States is given, 

 but no mention made of corresponding tem- 

 peratures. As it stands, the table is without 

 value for comparative purposes. 



The authors give generous credit to all who 

 have helped in the work. The Geographic 

 Society of Chicago has done well in making 

 accessible data which otherwise might have re- 

 mained buried in official files. The general 

 make-up of the book is good. 



Alexander McAdie 



Blue Hn.L Observatory 



SPECIAL ASTICLES 



SOME OBSERVATIONS ON THE FOOD HABITS OF THE 

 SHORT-TAILED SHREW (bLARINA BREVICAUDA) 



Or the six species of short-tailed shrews of 

 the genus Blarina occurring in the United 

 States, Blarina hrevicauda, called the large 

 blarina or mole-shrew, is the only one found 

 north of the Austral region, and consequently 

 is the only representative of the genus here in 

 Massachusetts. It inhabits deciduous wood- 

 lands and fields, where it makes shallow tun- 

 nels that are often marked on the surface by 

 little ridges. 



This shrew is described as follows on page 

 11 of North American Fauna No. 10, U. S. 

 Dept. of Agriculture:^ 



General characters. — Size, largest of the sub- 

 genus (total length about 125 mm.) ; skull largest 

 and heaviest of the American Soricidas; pelage 

 glossy. Color. — Sooty-plumbeous above, becoming 

 ashy-plumbeous below, varying with the light; 

 paler in summer; glossy in fresh pelage. 



It has a stout body, nose rather long and 

 tapering, external ears not visible, eyes very 



1 U. S. Dept. Agriculture, North American 

 Fauna Series No. 10, p. 4, 1895. ' ' Revision of the 

 Shrews of the American Genera Blarina and 

 Notiosorex," by C. Hart Merriam. 



small, front teeth chestnut colored at tips, and 

 tail about one quarter the length of the head 

 and body. It depends on the highly specialized 

 senses of touch, hearing and smell for guid- 

 ance in probing about and searching for food, 

 the eyes being very slightly developed. 



General works on natural history speak of 

 the diet of shrews as being chiefly worms, 

 larvse of insects and small mollusks. 



Audubon and Bachman,^ in speaking of the 

 Carolina shrew (Blarina hrevicauda caro- 

 linensis), an animal somewhat smaller than 

 the short-tailed shrew, say: 



In digging ditches and ploughing in moderately 

 high grounds, small holes are frequently seen run- 

 ning in all directions, in a line nearly parallel with 

 the surface, and extending to a great distance, evi- 

 dently made by this species. We observed on the 

 sides of one of these galleries a small cavity con- 

 taining a hoard of coleopterous insects, principally 

 composed of a rare species (Searahoeus tityns) 

 fully the size of the animal itself; some of them 

 were nearly consumed, and the rest mutilated, al- 

 though still living. 



Merriam^ says that " it subsists upon beech- 

 nuts, insects, earthworms, slugs, sow-bugs and 

 mice." He also speaks of its feeding on 

 chrysoledes and the larvaa of insects. He 

 quotes Mr. John Morden, in the Canadian 

 Sportsman and Naturalist, Vol. III., 1883, in 

 which the latter describes the mouse-killing 

 and eating propensities of the short-tailed 

 shrew and draws these conclusions: 



According to my observations, the little mammal 

 under consideration eats about twice or three times 

 its own weight of food every twenty-four hours, 

 and when we consider that their principal food 

 consists of insects, it is quite bewildering to imag- 

 ine the myriads one must destroy in a year. 



Merriam proceeds to tell of an encounter 

 between a short-tailed shrew weighing 11.20 

 grams and a deer mouse (Peromyscus leucopus) 

 weighing 17 grams, in which the former waa 

 victorious, and after eating an ear, the brains, 

 side of the head and part of the shoulder of the 

 mouse, weighed 12 grams. He says: 



2 Audubon and Bachman, ' ' The Quadrupeds of 

 North America," 1849. 



3 Merriam, "The Mammals of the Adirondack 

 Eegion," 1884. 



