MAMMALS OF PENNSYtVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. 207 



It is, more literally, a mud and muck dweller. The other species avoid 

 marshy and inundated grounds, and show no marked preference for the 

 vicinity of water, but the star-nose always likes to have his nose and feet wet. 

 In consequence of having such a " soft snap," his forefeet and legs are pro- 

 portionately weaker than in either Scalops or Parascalops, and, if we may 

 judge by its remarkable resemblance to that of the muskrat, his tail is often 

 brought to play in swimming. I have no doubt that the anatomy of this 

 species, as well as its chosen habitat infallibly indicates a much more aquatic 

 life than we have yet been able to prove by actual observation. As the boggy 

 nature of its house is distasteful to earthworms and other animals on which 

 the upland moles subsist, we must conclude that these form but a small part 

 of its diet, but the numerous aquatic and sub-aquatic insects and crustaceans 

 which harbor in wet meadows and stream banks would form bountiful supply. 

 Owing to its choice of hunting grounds the agriculturist rarely comes in con- 

 tact with it, except when it gets too rampant in its digging, and muck-piling 

 on a nice piece of meadow sod, or punches holes through the dykes and 

 dams. Little does the farmer know, however, what is the cause of all this 

 trouble, much less that if it were not for this self-same "pesky varmit" his 

 meadow would soon get so " stale, unprofitable flat " and sour that his cows 

 would abandon it. This mole has 4 to 6 young. 



Description of species. — The color is a dull, blackish slate, quite different 

 from the glossy sheen of the common mole. The tail is about half the length 

 of head and body, and in the rutting season that of both sexes is greatly 

 swollen, so as to resemble an elongated plummet, the base of the tail being 

 constricted to less than J^^ the greatest diameter. The radiated disk of the 

 nose is a conspicuous character, quite unique in the American mole family. 

 Its office is not exactly understood, but probably enables it to discover food. 



Measurements. — Total length, 170 mm. (6^ in.) ; tail vertebrae, 71 (2^) ; 

 hind foot, 27 (lyV)- 



Order CHIROPTERA ; Bats. 



Family Vespertilionidae, Plain-nosed, web-tailed Bats. 



Genus Myotis Kaup, Skizzirte Entw., Gesch. u Naturl. Syst. d. Europ. 

 Thierw., 1829, vol. i, p. 106. 



Lecontes' Little Brown Bat. Myotis lucifugus (Leconte;. 



1 83 1. V.[espertilio'] lucifugus Leconte, McMurtrie's Cuvier's Animal 

 Kingdom, vol, i, p. 431. 



1897. Myotis lucifugus Miller, North American Fauna, No. 13, p. 59. 



