'RE SI AHB 
Snails on the Bill of Fare. 
So little is known of the dietary of some of the com- 
monest mammals of the United States, that we may con- 
fidently expect interesting developments when economic 
zoologists abandon their scrutiny of bird-stomachs and 
look more closely into the food habits of squirrels, mice, 
moles and shrews. 
As the case stands at present, we have no recorded 
data which would either verify or disprove the assertion 
that certainly one-half and probably So per cent, of the 
species of mammals found east of the Mississippi are 
more or less addicted to eating snails. Such an assertion 
would excite no little surprise, if not incredulity, if made 
to-day before any gathering of zoologists. _ Five years ago 
I would have been among the most skeptical of ^the truth 
of such an assertion, but a more intimate experience with 
the smaller mammals which constitute two-thirds of the 
species found in the eastern United States has now con- 
vinced me that there is a large element of truth in it. 
This intimate acquaintance has been gained during several 
years of systematic trapping and preservation of squirrels, 
rats, mice, moles and shrews in Pennsylvania and New 
Jersey. In this pursuit many secrets, known best to 
foxes, cats, weasels, skunks, snakes and other creatures 
endowed with horizontal locomotion and extraordinary 
powers of scent, have been incidental!}^ revealed. To this 
knowledge have been added interesting notes on the larger 
mammalia taken in part frbm personal observation and 
more largely with my friend and hunting comrade, Mr. 
Seth Nelson, of Round Island, Clinton county, Pennsyl- 
vania. 
From a layman's standpoint, we might class our mam- 
mals, according to food habits, into the pseudo-scientific 
RUSTIC BIRD STAND. 
divisions of omnivorous, carnivorous, herbivorous and 
insectivorous, and place men and swine in the first class, 
the bear, fox and wildcat in the second, squirrels, musk- 
rats and meadow mice in the third, and moles and shrews 
in the last class. The child of to-day is soon taught the 
inadequacy of any zoological classification based solely on 
food habits, but few grown-up and thinking people realize 
that the bear is less carnivorous than the shrew, the mole 
or possibly even the red squirrel, while he is par ex- 
cellence an insectivore and a vegetarian. The fox does 
not belong at all in the same dietary class as the weasel, 
for two-thirds of its summer and autumn forage consists 
of fruit, berries and nuts. Red squirrels and chipmunks 
delight in flesh food, and are among the worst bird-nest 
robbers we have. Meadow mice (by which popular term 
are included four species of our commoner voles) are carn- 
RUSTIC BIRD STAND. 
ivores, a wood-hunting species {Evotomys), frequently 
eating large numbers of insects and snails, while the 
niuskrat eats large quantities of mussels. 
Enough has been said to show that the subject is one 
of interest and that research into the mysteries of the 
mammalian menu will well repay the patient student, as 
well as place the conclusions of economic zoology on a 
more stable basis. 
Man, the great omnivore, even in his so-called 'best 
estate," has been known to eat snails. It has never been a 
modern American propensity, however. As to the eating 
of snails and other moUusks, by aboriginal Americans, we 
have circumstantial evidence in the great shell heaps and 
icitchen middens of the Eastern States, 
Iti the ancient shell heaps of the St. John's Rivef. 
Florida, Prof. H. A, Pilsbry, of the Academy of Natural 
Sciences, Philadelphia, finds three species of fresh-water 
snails and two of Unios to be m_ost abundant. In Prof. 
Pilshry's opinion, snail shells were collected by the Semi- 
noles solely for eating, being boiled, and the animal ex- 
tracted by twisting so that the shells are uninjured. If 
they had been roasted the shells would have quickly 
crumbled with exposure. 
In the Tennessee shell mounds I have found only 5 per 
cent, of the whole mass to be unbroken Unios, and these 
confined almost entirely to the small rounded sub-circular 
forms. Water snails, or "wrinkles," are abundant, as are 
also land snails in such large numbers that it seems im- 
RUSTIC BIRD STAND. 
possible these could have got there by accident. Undoubt- 
edly all these were chiefly used for food, though much of 
the matrix of comminuted shells was probably composed of 
Unios destroyed in the manufacture of shell beds, 
wampum and articles of apparel as well as in the search 
for mussel pearls. 
In the Middle and New England States our common 
mussels, as well as some of the larger land snails, are 
found in the cave middens of the Delawares and other 
tribes of the interior. On the sea coasts aboriginal shell- 
heaps contain tons of the shells of oysters and clams 
used for the joint purpose of getting food, wampun, beads, 
pearls and instruments of daily use in camp and the chase. 
It is asserted that much of the winter diet of these 
Indians consisted of the dried and smoked bodies of the 
mollusks whose shells are yet so perfectly preserved in 
the depths of those historic heaps. 
Among the carnivora., the black bear is undoubtedly the 
largest feeder on snails. In hunting these incidentals to 
his insect diet in summer, a bear makes almost exactly the 
same kind of a trail through the forest as a conchologist in 
his overturn of logs, stones and leaves and the stripping of 
bark and moss from decayed stumps and trees. Any one 
who follows the trail of a foraging bear in the hope of 
adding to his shell cabinet will quickly realize what a thor- 
ough conchologist Ephraini is by the total absence of 
specimens where his nose has been rummaging. They 
appreciate the slimy Limax quite as much as the shelled 
species, and the fragile and tiny Selenites and Vitrcea are 
no more beneath notice than the nimble ants that swarm 
under the same piece of bark. The raccoon is another 
omnivore whose predilection for water courses brings him 
in frequent contact with aquatic and moisture-loving 
species of mollusks. Whether it devours mussels the 
writer has no personal knowledge, but those living on 
maritime shores are reputed to eat the flesh of several 
species of the larger univalve and bivalve shells.* Mr. 
Nelson assures me that they eat the Helicidce, etc. 
The last remark equally applies to the highly omniv- 
orous skunk. The otter sometimes eats mussels. I 
have found their remains on otter rocks in the lakes of 
northern New Jersey and Pennsylvania, whose valves had 
been crushed near the muscular attachment in order to 
get at the live animal. In this habit the methods of the 
otter are distinguished from those of the muskrat, the 
latter animal preferring to bring the live mussels to the 
shore, where they suffocate and open from exposure to the 
air, and are then easily eaten by the rats. 
A fisherman of Porter's Lake, Pike county. Pa., told nie 
he had seen otters swimming in the lake with mussels in 
their mouths. 
Regarding the weasel, mink, marten, pekan, lynx, wild- 
cat and panther, there seems to be no evidence that they 
eat mollusks under normal conditions. 
The wolf, coyote, Indian dog and the red and gray 
fox eat land snails, mussels and maritime mollusks with 
avidity, especially when hunger-pressed. 
The omnivorous maw of the opossum is probably a 
frequent receptacle for land and fresh-water snails, but 
no authentic instances of such have yet come to my 
notice. 
The Insectivora are represented in the Eastern States by 
three species of moles and about ten species of long and 
short-tailed shrews, all of which probably devour land 
snails in small quantities. I have found freshly eaten 
specimens in the burrows of the short-tailed shrew 
* Dr. Merriam, in "Mammals of the .\dirondaclcs," states that 
the raccoon often subsists on mussels. 
(Blarma brevicauda), the masked and the smoky shrev/ 
{Sorex personatus and o- formeus), where these -animals 
were trapped. No definite data have come to hand of 
the use of snails by moles, but it may be confidently ex- 
pected that evidence of this will be quickly forthcoming 
when they are studied. From the nature of their habits. 
Brewer's mole {Parascalops breiveri) and the star-nosed 
mole {Condylura cristata) are the most likely to affect a 
molluscan diet. 
Among the Rodentia we might look for the fewest in- 
stances of the moUusk-eating habit, but this is a mistaken 
view. Of the typical MuridcB, or mice and rats closely 
related to the genus Mus, most of the species are well 
known to be omnivorous, and the fact that they are known 
to eat snails would cause no surprise. _ In this group we 
may include several species of deer mice {Peromyscus) , 
the wood rat (Neotoma), the harvest mouse {Reitli- 
rodontomys) , two species of jumping mice (Zaptis), and 
the rice field mouse (Oryzomys) , all of which are native, 
and add to these four species of naturalized Old World 
Mus. Of these I have proof that the deer-mouse and the 
wood-rat devour several species of land snails of various 
genera, and no doubt it is only a question of time when all 
on the list will be found to do the same in greater or less 
amount. 
Another large sub-family of the Muridce in this region 
is the MicroHnce, including the voles and lemmings, com- 
monly called meadow mice. Among these are two species 
which devour mollusks quite frequently, as can be de- 
termined by examining the burrows. Of these voles the 
pine vole (Microtus pinetorum) and the woodland or red- 
backed vole (Evotomys gapperi), are more subterranean 
and forest-haunting species than their near relatives, the, 
common meadow or field vole, Avhich I have not yet ob- i 
served to vary its vegetable diet with such entrees. The j 
species eaten by the pine and red-back voles are very \ 
much the same as those eaten by the deer mouse. 
Closely related to these is the muskrat {Fiber sibetlu- 
cus), which is the largest shell gatherer we have in our 
fresh- water streams, next to man himself. If we are to 
judge by the large quantities of mussels collected by these 
industrious animals and deposited in scattered heaps 
along the margins of fresh-water streams and lake^, they 
must subsist in certain localities very largely upon animal 
food during no small part of the year. In the Mississippi 
Valley drainage, where the Unionidce are represented by 
an astonishing number of species and individuals, the 
RUSTIC BIRD STAND. 
operations of the muskrats can best be observed. They 
seem to show little preference for any particular species, 
but rarely handle those weighing over a quarter of a 
pound, the young of all species being preferred to the 
older ones. As their plan is to let the mussel do its 
own opening, it makes no difference how thick its shell. 
Exposure to the air for a few hours soon makes the most 
obdurate Unio accessible to the muskrat that takes the 
trouble to dredge it out of the mud and deposit it on some 
shady log, rock or sand bank and await developments. I 
have not yet observed an instance where the rat had 
forcibly broken the shell of a Unio or Anodonta to get at 
the contents. In bringing the mussels to the surface the 
rats are said to clasp them in their arms and swim along 
by means of the hind legs and tail. It is probable thati 
RUSTIC BIRD STAND. 
they sometimes carry them in their teeth, as it would be 
inipossible for them to place the shells on a slippery log 
overhanging the water unless they had free use of all four 
feet. • , , . . 
Unless disturbed, the rats devour the entire animal, as- 
neatly cleaning away the muscular attachments as if done 
with a knife and at the same time leaving the ligamentous 
hinge intact. ' . , , 
Among the Sciuridce, or squirrels, we have one specie? 
in the eastern United States to which my attention ha . 
been specially attracted as the ne plus ultra snail eater 
Any one who has been following the discussions in 
Forest and Stream regarding the carnivorous appetite ot 
I 
