SMALLER MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA 



489 



use except to distinguish between light and 

 dark, but their senses of hearing and smell are 

 highly developed, as is also the sense of touch 

 in their long hairs, or "whiskers," about the 

 nose. In captivity an extreme sensitiveness is 

 exhibited to sudden sounds, especially such as 

 those of a bird's wings, indicating an instinctive 

 fear born of age-long persecution by birds of 

 prey. Food is located by smell, and as the 

 flexible end of the snout is moved continually 

 from side to side, odors are caught which may 

 register conceptions as definite in the minds of 

 these small animals as sight does in more 

 favored beasts. All shrews are provided with 

 musk glands and on account of these are ap- 

 parently nauseous to most other animals, as 

 they are rarely eaten by beasts of prey. These 

 musky "ecretions must be of great service to 

 facilitate them in locating one another. 



Like other shrews and the moles, their diges- 

 tion appears to be very rapid and they will eat 

 two or three times their own weight in a day. 

 This necessitates great activity on their part 

 during much of the time in order to find the 

 required food. They prefer insects and meat, 

 but are practically omnivorous, feeding not 

 only upon many kinds of insects, but on earth- 

 worms, slow-worms, sowbugs, snails, slugs, 

 mice, shrews, and the young of ground-nesting 

 birds, as well as such vegetable food as beech- 

 nuts, seeds, bread, and oatmeal. 



The instinct of prevision against the season 

 of winter scarcity appears to be developed in 

 them, as one in captivity buried beechnuts in 

 the earth, and they are known to store living 

 snails in small piles and to gather disabled 

 beetles in store-rooms in their tunnels. 



The courage and blind ferocity of the short- 

 tailed shrews when they are placed near cap- 

 tive mice far larger than themselves, is amaz- 

 ing to all who witness their encounters. They 

 attack instantly, spreading their front feet to 

 gain a firmer footing and moving forward in 

 little rushes. Mice larger and much more 

 powerful than the shrew are persistently at- 

 tacked and, finally giving out, are pounced upon 

 and the flesh torn from their heads and necks 

 with ravening eagerness. One day a passing 

 observer heard a loud squealing on a railroad 

 bank where an examination revealed a short- 

 tailed shrew dragging away a nearly dead pine 

 mouse, though the mouse was much the heavier. 

 The notes of the shrews are a fine tremulous 

 squeak which becomes a longer, harsher, and 

 more twittering or chattering cry when they are 

 angry. 



Xo cessation of their activity occurs in win- 

 ter. When the cold weather begins many gather 

 about barns and houses located near woods or 

 old fields, and thus with the field mice take 

 advantage of the garnered food supplies and 

 shelter. Others remain in their regular haunts, 

 where they frequently burrow long distances in 

 the snow, making networks of tunnels and 

 traveling long distances just below the surface, 

 leaving little raised ridges like the track of a 

 mole on the ground. Their journeys upon and 

 under the surface of the snow appear to be 

 in search of food, as they burrow clown to old 



logs and stumps which make good feeding 

 grounds. Their movements are very active, as 

 they go about either at a walk or quick trot. 



These fierce and truculent little hunters are 

 wholly beneficial in their habits and should be 

 encouraged in place of being killed on sight 

 indiscriminately, as one of the ordinary mouse 

 tribe. 



THE RED BAT (Nycteris borealis) 



(For illustration, see page 464) 



Bats reach their greatest development in the 

 tropics, where a marvelous variety of these 

 curious mammals exist. To the northward the 

 number of species gradually decreases, until 

 eventually, in northern Canada and Alaska, a 

 single species represents the group. The United 

 States, occupying the middle latitudes, has a 

 considerable number of different kinds. Some 

 of these remain throughout the year, hibernat- 

 ing in caves during the period of cold, when 

 insects are not to be had; others wing their 

 way southward like birds on the approach of 

 winter and return in spring. 



All bats are nocturnal, although individuals 

 of some species occasionally fly about for a 

 time by day and many come out just before or 

 soon after sunset. In this country practically 

 all species are insectivorous, but in Mexico and 

 the West Indies many are fruit-eaters and a 

 few true vampires or blood-suckers. 



As a rule, bats are clothed in dull colors, but 

 richly tinted coats give a few a more attractive 

 appearance. Of these none has a more strik- 

 ing adornment than that presented by the soft 

 covering of glossy orange-red fur of the red 

 bat. Its large size, about four inches in total 

 length, with a spread of wings amounting to 

 twelve inches, combined with its color, suffices 

 to distinguish it at once from any other north- 

 ern species. 



The range of the red bat extends from the 

 Atlantic coast to the Pacific and from Ontario 

 and Alberta in southern Canada south through- 

 out most of the United States to the Gulf coast 

 and southern California; also beyond our limits 

 to Lower California and Costa Rica. The 

 genus to which this bat belongs ranges more 

 widely in other parts of North America ; also 

 to South America and across the eastern Pacific 

 to the Galapagos and Hawaiian Islands. 



The red bat rarely or never seeks shelter in 

 gloomy caves and crevices, but hangs to the 

 small twigs or leaf stems on trees and bushes 

 in the full light of the sun. One observer in 

 Texas on July 4 found four of them hanging 

 in a cluster from a twig on a peach tree, with 

 the sun shining full on them, although the tem- 

 perature in the shade was 82 degrees Fahren- 

 heit. I have found them in northern Illinois 

 in the glaring sunlight of May, hanging from 

 leaves in the tops of oak trees. This unusual 

 tolerance of light in a member of the bat tribe 

 is further shown by its habit of beginning to 

 hunt through the air for insects earlier in the 

 afternoon than other species in its range. 



Long, narrow wings and swift, powerful flight 



