PRELIMINARY LIST OF THE MAMMALS OF NEW YORK 359 



" Nearly a year later on August i, 1896 I caught a second specimen of 

 this shrew on Mt Marcy, the highest of the Adirondack mountains . . . 

 It was taken in a crevice between some rocks on the bare open summit 

 of the mountain about 5300 feet above sea-level. The locality where 

 the first one was captured is about eight miles distant in an air line and 

 lies at an elevation of only 1300 feet above the sea" ('96b, p. 133). 



Mearns : "The [eight] specimens were trapped in hollows under mossy 

 stones and stumps usually in wet balsam or spruce woods or in weedy 

 swamps. The lowest place where it was taken was in a balsam swamp 

 at about 3700 feet altitude, others were caught somewhat higher in a 

 sparsely wooded swamp densely overgrown with asters (Aster puniceus) 

 then in bloom, and four were trapped on the top of Hunter mountain 

 (altitude 4025 feet) " ('98b p. 356). 



Sorex personatus I. Geoffroy St Hilaire Masked shrew 



1827 Sorex personatus I Geoffroy St Hilaire, Mem. du mus. d'hist. nat. 



Paris. 15 : 122. 

 1842 Sorex forsteri De Kay, Zoology of New York, Mammalia, p. 40. 

 1842 Otisorex platyrhinus De Kay, Zoology of New York, Mammalia. 



p. 22. 

 1884 Sorex cooperi Merriam, Linn. soc. New York. Trans. 2 : 75. 



1895 Sorex personalis Miller, North American fauna. no. 10. 



31 Dec. 1895. p. 53. 



1896 Sorex personatus' Fisher, The Observer. May 1896. 7 : 194. 

 1898 Sorex personatus Mearns, U. S. Nat. mus. Proc. 21 : 355. 



1898 Sorex personatus Mearns, Am. mus. nat. hist. Bui. 9 Sep. 1898. 

 io:343- 



Type locality. Eastern United States possibly somewhere in New York. 



Faunal position. Boreal and transition zones ; cool localities in upper 

 austral zone. 



Habitat. Open or wooded places both wet and dry. 



Distribution in New York. The masked shrew probably occurs 

 throughout the state. 



Principal records. De Kay : "They are found in all parts of the 

 state" ('42, p. 21). Merriam: "This diminutive shrew, the smallest 

 known mammalian inhabitant of the Adirondacks, is quite common in 

 most parts of the region but much more abundant some years than 

 others" ( ; 84d, p. 75). Fisher: "The common shrew is rather rare and 

 is the only one of the long-tailed species found in the neighborhood [of 

 Sing Sing]. Its scarcity however may be only apparent and due wholly 



