Dismal Swamp Small Mammals 49 



the likely extinction of the Dismal Swamp subspecies of the southern 

 bog lemming, Synaptomys cooperi helaletes. We took specimens from 

 both sides of Jericho Ditch, and one specimen near East Ditch. The 

 cane-grass-sedge vegetation type is dominant under the powerline, and 

 it is possible that S. c. helaletes occurs throughout this habitat. Starting 

 in 1895, Fisher caught 21 specimens of southern bog lemming in the 

 Swamp, mostly in cane patches near Lake Drummond. We took one 

 Synaptomys in cane, but the remainder were captured in mixed grass- 

 land in which softstem rush was abundant. Meadow voles were present 

 in the mixed grass habitat, but not in the cane. 



By far our greatest success was in trapping shrews (Table 1). We 

 captured 15 Sorex longirostris fisheri, which is as many as had been 

 obtained by all previous investigators (Handley 1979). We caught 2 

 specimens of the least shrew, Cryptotis parva, compared to 1 taken by 

 previous investigators, and 15 Blarina, compared to 39 collected in ear- 

 lier studies. Our comparatively high success in capturing shrews is prob- 

 ably related to use of pitfall traps. An advantage of pitfall traps is that 

 they more readily capture certain species of small mammals than do 

 snap (or break-back) traps (Rose and McKean 1980). Rose (1980) 

 reported the capture of 18 southeastern shrews in pitfall traps and none 

 in snap traps. The conclusion that southeastern shrews are not effec- 

 tively taken by snap (or live) traps is borne out by published records 

 (reviewed by Rose 1980; French 1980). 



Handley's (1979) fears that S. longirostris fisheri has been geneti- 

 cally "swamped out" through introgression with the smaller upland S. I. 

 longirostris Bachman may be unfounded, at least for populations in the 

 northwestern corner of the Swamp in 1980. With a mean total length of 

 95.8±2.3 mm, the 1980 Dismal Swamp southeastern shrews are much 

 longer than any of the upland subspecies (French, pers. comm.). 

 Whether these values are larger than the 1890s S. I. fisheri is uncertain, 

 for Handley (1979:310, Table 1) did not give standard measurements for 

 the 15 S.l. fisheri collected by Fisher and housed in the National 

 Museum, nor have I examined the specimens. Nevertheless, the large 

 size of the 1980 specimens suggests that S. I. fisheri has maintained 

 genetic isolation from S. I. longirostris. 



Similarly, the Blarina were large and undoubtedly referrable to B. 

 brevicauda telmalestes, which Handley (1979) called the greater short- 

 tailed shrew. Jones et al. (1979) referred to the taxon as Blarina telma- 

 lestes, the Dismal Swamp short-tailed shrew. This disparity of usage 

 correctly indicates that the taxonomy of the genus Blarina is in flux. 

 According to Tate et al. (1980) the Dismal Swamp is one region in 

 which two distinctive sizes of Blarina occur, perhaps sympatrically; the 

 larger is B. brevicauda and the smaller B. carolinensis. 



The total number of species trapped in our study — seven — 

 compares well with previous studies. Handley obtained the same 



