MAMMALS. 



271 



were equally numerous at the other stations throughout the interior. The natives reported them as 

 also numerous in the Bering Straits and Kotzebue Sound districts, but I do not know of their occur- 

 rence on the islands of Bering Sea. An abundance of specimens were brought me from along the 

 entire course of the Yukon and from the valley of the Kuskoquim. 



These odd little beasts are omnivorous in the widest sense, and insects, meat, fat, flour, or 

 seeds all go to make up their winter bill of fare. 



Among the specimens taken in the houses at Saint Michaels I found considerable variation in 

 the size, color of pelage, and in the teeth, but this appeared to be purely individual. After snow- 

 falls they travel from place to place by forcing a passage under the snow, and frequently keep 

 so near the surface that a slight ridge is left to mark their passage. On the ice of the Yukon I 

 have traced a ridge of this kind over a mile, and was repeatedly surprised to see what a direct 

 course the shrews could make for long distances under the surface. These minute tunnels were 

 noted again and again crossing the Yukon from bank to bank. 



These little adventurers sometimes tunnel far out on the seaice, and the N"orton Sound Eskimo 

 have a curious superstition connected with such stray individuals. They claim that there is a kind 

 of a water shrew living on the ice at sea which is exactly like the common land shrew in appearance, 

 but which is endowed with demoniac quickness and power to work harm. If one of them is dis- 

 turbed by a person it darts at the Intruder, and burrowing under the skin, works about inside 

 at random and finally enters the heart and kills him. As a consequence of this belief the hunters 

 are in mortal terror if they chance to meet a shrew on the ice at sea, and in one case that I knew 

 of a hunter stood immovable on the ice for several hours until a shrew he happened to meet disap- 

 peared from sight, whereupon he hurried home, and Tiis friends all agreed that he had had a very 

 narrow escape. 



The Point Barrow party secured a single specimen of another species, S. Forsteri, from Meade 

 Eiver, but did not find it near their station, so it is apparently uncommon along the most northern 

 and desolate parts of the mainland coast. 



Lepus timidus aecticus (Linn.). Polar Hare (Esk. Kai-okh'-hM). 



List of specimens. 



Biographical notes. — This fine hare is widely distributed in Northern Alaska. It is numerous 

 in all of the open coast country from the mouth of the Kuskoquim Eiver to the Kotzebue Sound 

 district. From this latter point north along the Arctic coast these hares are more and more scarce, 

 until in the vicinity of Point Barrow, where they are unknown, according to Mr. Murdoch. In the 

 interior, however, wherever open barrens are found along the Kuskoquim and Yukon Jlivers and 

 to the northward, the Polar Hare is more or less common. On the Bering Sea islands they are 

 unknown except on the islands immediately adjoining the mainland, such as Saint Michaels and 

 Nelson's. The open country of the Yukon delta is their place of greatest abundance so far as I 

 was able to learn. There, in May, 1879, I found them very common. The snowwas nearly gone, 

 and while traveling along the small channels between the islands in the pale twilight which 

 marks the nights at that season we saw many hares playing about on the banks. They were 

 often in small parties of from three to five or six, and were not very shy. They were just losing 

 the white winter fur, and, like the surrounding country, were mottled with gray and white. 



While camped in this vicinity ait that time I found them to be almost entirely nocturnal in 

 their habits, rarely moving about in daytime even during the gloomy days when the sky was 



