94 Ronald S. Caldwell and Hal Bryan 



Creek in Knox County (Fig. IB). The Knox County specimen is the first 

 record of this shrew in the Eastern Coal Field (elevation 326 msl). We 

 also have a specimen from the edge of the Inner Bluegrass on the 

 Franklin-Scott County line. We have found it most frequently in bot- 

 tomland hardwoods of the Mississippi Embayment, in the same cans 

 with the small short-tailed shrew, Blarina carolinensis. 



Sorex fumeus Miller, Smoky Shrew — This is the most common 

 long-tailed shrew in the Eastern Coal Field (Fig. 1C). The series of 

 smoky shrews taken by Bailey (1933) at Mammoth Cave National Park, 

 Edmonson County, was once thought to represent a disjunct population 

 (Blair et al. 1968). However, our recent records support the hypothesis 

 of Barbour and Davis (1974) that these animals are "probably distrib- 

 uted across southern Kentucky where suitable habitat is available". We 

 collected smoky shrews across the Mississippian Plateau west to Todd 

 County. In addition, they have been collected along the wooded corri- 

 dor of the Kentucky River north to Franklin County, and probably 

 occur in other counties of central and north-central Kentucky. The 

 western limit of the species' range is as yet undetermined. 



The species is usually found in relatively mature mesic forests with 

 deep organic litter (Hamilton 1940). Along the Kentucky River in 

 northern Franklin County it is the most abundant shrew in the forest 

 above the five-year floodplain. Individuals seldom move into the annu- 

 ally inundated riparian forest of cottonwood, silver maple, and syca- 

 more, where Blarina brevicauda is the most common shrew. In rich 

 mesic forest we have taken as many as 15 smoky shrews in 2 cans left in 

 place for 5 days. We recently took a smoky shrew in a wooded ravine in 

 Hardin County over upper Mississippian limestone in what was thought 

 to be the Kentucky "Barrens" (Dicken 1935). 



Sorex dispar Batchelder, Long-Tailed Shrew — Sorex dispar was 

 taken at only two localities, both woods at high elevations on Pine 

 Mountain (Fig. ID). Here specimens were captured beside logs in 

 water-filled pitfall traps, and along wet rockfaces in snap-traps. Wet, 

 moss-covered rockfaces, and cool, shaded talus slopes at high eleva- 

 tions, are the preferred habitats. Sorex dispar should be sought at addi- 

 tional sites on Pine, Cumberland, and Big Black mountains in Pike, 

 Letcher, Harlan, and Bell counties. 



Microsorex hoyi (Baird), Pygmy Shrew — Pygmy shrews are the 

 smallest mammals endemic to North America. Diersing (1980) revised 

 the pygmy shrews and reduced Microsorex to subgeneric status. The 

 taxonomic status of this shrew in Kentucky is currently under investiga- 

 tion by Caldwell and Smith. Long (1972a,b; 1974) considered the pygmy 

 shrew to be a boreal animal restricted in the southern parts of its range 



