BLARINA BREVICAUDA. 
71 
a rough nest, to which he always retires when he wants to rest. He 
is very fond of beechnuts and thrived when fed exclusively on them 
for more than a week. One evening, not long ago, I put a handful 
of beechnuts in his water saucer. He soon found them and carried 
them off. Part he buried in a hole under the saucer, part under his 
nest, and the rest in an excavation near one corner of the box. 
This certainly looks as if the animal was in the habit of hoarding for 
winter. In opening the nuts he invariably commences at the small 
end, and, after biting a little hole there, strips off one side as neatly 
as it can be done with a penknife. If left without food for a few hours 
he will eat corn from the cob, beginning at the outside of the kernel, 
but it is very clear that he does not relish this fare. He will also eat 
Indian meal and oats when other food is not at hand. Slu^s and 
earth worms he devours with avidity, always starting at one end, and 
manipulating them with his fore-paws. But of the various kinds of 
food placed before him he shows an unmistakable preference for 
mice — either dead or alive. 
The late Robert Kennicott, in a valuable paper upon “ The Quad- 
rupeds of Illinois Injurious and Beneficial to the Farmer,” contributed 
the following to the life-history of this little-known mammal 
“ I have several times kept specimens in captivity for a day or two, 
though they always died by the end of that time, despite my care. 
While alive, the minute black eye is distinctly seen and always open ; 
but, though the sense of sight may be possessed in the dark, it 
certainly is not used in the full light. Upon Avaving different objects 
before one, or thrusting my finger or a stick close to its face, no 
notice was taken of it whatever ; but if I made any noise near by, it 
always started. If the floor were struck, or even the air disturbed, 
it would start back from that direction. I observed no indication 
that an acute sense of smell enabled it to recognize objects at any 
considerable distance ; but its hearing was remarkable. An exceed- 
ingly delicate sense of touch was exhibited by the whiskers, and if, 
after irritating a shrew, I placed a stick against it, in even the most 
