Survey Shrews 117 



ative abundance that are similar to each other and reasonably stable over two 

 years. 



Comparisons involving Blarina brevicauda must be considered with 

 some caution due to low sample sizes. However, our study provides some evi- 

 dence that B. brevicauda was less likely than Sorex spp. to be captured with trap 

 arrangements utilizing natural or artificial structures to direct movement. On 

 encountering a linear structure, B. brevicauda may not have followed the struc- 

 ture lengthwise, which was necessary for capture. It is also noteworthy that B. 

 brevicauda is largely fossorial (George et al. 1986) and may not spend as much 

 time moving across the forest floor and encountering drift-fences or natural habi- 

 tat structures. 



Largely because of B. brevicauda we found that drift-fence arrays pro- 

 vided a different depiction of the southern Appalachian shrew community than 

 did either of two types of transects. Mitchell et al. (1993) and Dowler et al. 

 (1985) also found differences in species richness and numbers of shrews collect- 

 ed using pitfalls set singly and in conjunction with drift-fence arrays. In 1,750 

 TN at each trap arrangement, Dowler et al. (1985) captured 47 S. cinereus at 

 arrays compared to 29 in isolated pitfalls, but they only captured 2 B. brevicau- 

 da at arrays compared to 3 at isolated pitfalls. Again, inferences are tenuous due 

 to small capture frequencies, and further studies into the movement patterns and 

 behavior of Blarina are recommended. 



Overall capture success with transects was 7.2% in 1994 and 3.9% in 

 1995. This disparity provided evidence that numbers of shrews may have 

 decreased between the two trapping periods, perhaps due to the removal of ani- 

 mals during 1994. Thus, for the purposes of these analyses we have had to make 

 the assumption that this change in overall shrew abundance did not affect pat- 

 terns of shrew microhabitat use. 



Among the 3 shrews we studied (Sorex hoyi excluded), S. fumeus and S. 

 cinereus exhibited weak, but significant, relationships with structures on the for- 

 est floor, whereas B. brevicauda did not. We are aware of no previous studies of 

 microhabitat use by S. fumeus. The observations of MacCracken et al. (1985) in 

 southeastern Montana support the importance of litter cover (dead plant parts) to 

 S. cinereus; however, they did not separate downed logs from other types of 

 debris. In contrast, Yahner (1986) found that the mean length and density of logs 

 were lower at trap stations where S. cinereus was captured than where this 

 species was not captured, and Getz (1961) concluded that microhabitat features 

 have little or no effect on distributions of S. cinereus, emphasizing the impor- 

 tance of moisture. Our results suggest that selective use of microhabitat features 

 by S. cinereus may be so weak as to require a very large sampling effort to detect. 



Our results agree with Getz (1961) and Yahner (1982) who found no 

 evidence for microhabitat selection in B. brevicauda. Conversely, Seagle (1985) 



