20 



ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF ONTARIO. 



2. Scalops aquations (Linn). — Shrew Mole. — The term aquaticus as applied to this 

 species is a misnomer, as in its habits it shows a preference for the drier ground, coming 

 frequently into gardens and being of doubtful utility there. Apparently rare in Ontario. 



3. Scapanus Americanus (Bartram). — Hairy Tailed Mole, Brewer's Mole — More 

 northern than either of preceding. In habits resembles the shrew mole. One taken at 

 Ottawa, as reported by Ottawa Field Naturalists' Club, 1890. 



The shrews are much more terrestrial than the moles, and are still more mouse like 

 in their appearance. However, their long, pointed and movable muzzle should serve to 

 distinguish them from mice. Their position in the economy of nature is, as has been pointed 

 out, vastly different. They feed on insects the year round, and are nocturnal in their 

 habits. They are all small, some exceedingly small, the Etruscan shrew, found in Italy, 

 being the smallest of known mammals. Its head and body measure only an inch and a 

 half in length, and its tail adds about an inch more. 



What shrews lack in size they atone for in numbers, activity and voracity, and from 

 an economic point of view they must be reckoned among the farmer's best friends. Two 

 genera and several species occur in Ontario. 



1. — Blarina brevicauda (Say.) Short tailed Shrew. More mole-like in appearance 

 than any member of the next genus. Bebides destroying innumerable injurious insects 

 in the course of a year, this industrious mammal is a persistent enemy to mice, following 

 them into their burrows and killing them there. Common in Ontario. 



2. — Sorex Cooperi, Bachman. — Cooper's Shrew. This little dweller of our fields 

 and woods is by no means so rare as its infrequent capture would lead one to suppose. 

 While it moves in its agile, restless manner usually on the surface of the ground, it manages 

 to travel under cover of dead leaves and herbage, thus eluding the notice of all but the 

 keenest observer. Once in the woods about the middle of May, searching for salamanders, 

 under rotten logs, etc., I captured alive a specimen of this diminutive threw which I bad dis- 

 turbed and driven from his sylvan retreat. Placing it in a large bottle with a handful of 

 cotton batting, I watched it dart through and through the cotton with astonishing rapidity. 

 Half an hour later I introduced a live May beetle which was instantly attacked and entirely 

 eaten. Within ten minutes I proffered an earth-worm which was immediately caught at the 

 head and bitten down the middle throughout its whole leDgth. The action although quickly 

 performed left a groove or cut as neatly as any dissector could have done with a knife. 

 The worm at once collapsed and from its whiteness I inferred that its blood had been 

 extracted during the nipping process. As it remained untouched, within another ten 

 minutes, wishing to know whether the shrew's appetite had been satisfied or whether 



it preferred insects to worms, I droppi d in a 

 second May beetle which was at once killed 

 and the ronjor portion eaten, the head and 

 elytra alone remaining. Shortly h£< ei wards 

 the voracious little creature died, overcome 

 as it seemed by the very abundance of supplies 

 — a death suggesting, though somewhat dis- 

 similar from, that ot the farmer who. accord- 

 ing to the Porter in "Macbeth," "hanged 

 himself on the expectation of plenty." 



3. — Sorex platyrhinus (De Kay) Broad- 

 nosed Shri w. In August, 1895, l captured 

 in a held of reaped oats near Plover Mills, 

 an individual of this species which as far as 

 Fig. 4. Sorex Akaneus.-A Typical Shrew. X know remains the only record for Ontar.o. 



In habits it differs in no maiked degree from 

 its congener, Cooper's Shrew. Fig. 4. — The common European Shrew (S<>rex araneus) — 

 a typical representative of the large and useful genus, Sorex. Natural size. 



