MOLES AND SHREWS 409 
and the rudimentary eyes are usually covered by the skin, 
and merely enable the mole to distinguish light from darkness. 
Moles spend practically their entire existence beneath the 
surface of the ground, so that we rarely get sight of them. 
They burrow through the earth with marvelous rapidity, 
advancing at the rate of 100 feet a day in ordinary sod and 
several times as fast in loose plowed ground. The path is 
only a few inches below the surface, and its course may usu- 
ally be traced by a ridge of loosened earth. Sometimes 
they also throw up small mounds of earth called mole hills. 
There are about a dozen species of moles, varying somewhat 
in size, but they are usually larger than mice and shrews. 
In Minnesota they are not 
found so often as in many 
other parts of the country, 
and west of Minnesota they : 
are still more rare, there |, — 
being none at all reported 
as yet for North Dakota. Sete OREeyy 
The Shrews look like small mice, but they have longer and 
more pointed muzzles, with the nose projecting beyond the 
mouth, — though not so far as in the case of the moles. They 
have very small bright eyes that are situated rather far down 
toward the tip of the nose. Their colors range from dull 
gray to brown. ‘They spend most of their time in their under- 
ground burrows and rarely come forth except at night. We 
occasionally throw them out with the spade or the plow, 
but we seldom see them moving about. There are 35 species 
in the United States and Canada, four of them being listed in 
North Dakota. Probably the commonest kind in the north- 
ern states is the Short-tailed Shrew. This is the largest of 
all the shrews, its head and body measuring four inches, 
