SCALOPS AQUATICUS. 
55 
able odor, which at certain seasons becomes exceedingly rank and 
nauseous. 
SCALOPS AQUATICUS (Linn.) Fischer. 
, Shreiv Mole. 
This species is not common about the borders of the Adirondacks, 
and is seldom if ever found within the evergreen forests, thougdi it 
sometimes finds the way to the frontier settler’s garden. 
Its specific name, aquaticus , like many others in Zoological nomen- 
clature, has been unfortunately chosen and has no bearing on the 
habits of the animal ; for not only is the Shrew Mole not known 
voluntarily to swim, but in the selection of its haunts it shows no 
preference for the vicinity of water, but manifests rather a contrary 
tendency. 
Its home is underground, and its entire lifetime is spent beneath 
the surface. Its food consists almost wholly of earth-worms, grubs, 
ants, and other insects that live in the earth and under logs and 
stones It is almost universally regarded as an enemy to the farmer, 
and is commonly destroyed whenever opportunity affords ; for, not- 
withstanding the fact that it subsists upon insects that injure the 
crops, it is nevertheless true that, in the procurement of these, it 
disfigures the garden paths and beds, by the ridges and little mounds 
of earth that mark the course of its subterranean galleries, and loosens 
and injures many choice plants in its probings for grubs amongst 
their roots. 
The strength of the Shrew Mole is simply prodigious, for an 
animal of its diminutive size, and the speed with which it forces 
itself through the ground is marvellous. Audubon and Bachman, 
speaking of one they had in confinement, state : “We afterwards put 
the Mole into a large wire rat-trap, and to our surprise saw him in- 
sert his fore-paws or hands, between the wires, and force them apart 
sufficiently to give him room to pass out through them at once, and 
