20 
JOURNAL OF MAMMALOGY 
NOTES ON THE MAMMALS OF INTERIOR ALASKA 
By Lee Raymond Dice 
From July, 1911, to September, 1912, the author was in the interior 
of Alaska serving as deputy fur warden in the Alaska Fisheries Service. 
During this time a small collection of mammals was made and many 
notes on habits and distribution were secured. The publication of 
these notes is with the permission of the United States Bureau of 
Fisheries. 
The regions visited were: Fairbanks, Tanana, Cosna River, the 
Kuskokwim from the head of the North Fork to Bethel, Takotna, 
the Yukon from White Horse to Birches and from Russian Mission to 
the mouth, and St. Michaels. A few records of specimens collected 
by Chief Warden H. J. Christoffers at Fairbanks are also included. 
Descriptions of the various habitats of interior Alaska have already 
been given.^ 
Thanks are due Mr. E. A. Preble for help in identifying the species, 
and to Dr. B. W. Evermann, then chief of the Alaska Fisheries Service, 
for cooperation in securing the specimens and notes. The specimens 
collected are preserved in the National Museum. 
ANNOTED LIST OF MAMMALS 
Sorex personatus arcticus Merriam. Arctic Shrew. — Taken in white spruce 
forest, in black spruce forest, in willow thickets, in the grass at lake borders, and 
among nigger-heads. It occurs in the valleys and along the small streams up to 
timber-line. The runways of mice, especially of the Drummond vole, are com- 
monly used by it. On January 6, 1912, one was taken in a cabin in the hills near 
Tanana, where he had been feeding on bacon and dried fish. Specimens were 
taken at Tanana, Mount Sischu, on the North Fork of the Kuskokwim at its head 
and at its junction with the McKinley Fork, and others were collected by H. J. 
Christoffers at Fairbanks. A female taken June 6 on Mount Sischu contained 8 
embryos each about 2.5 mm. in length. 
Sorex tundrensis Merriam. Tundra Shrew. — One was trapped September 7, 
1911, in grass and short brush near nigger-heads in the Yukon Valley at Tanana. 
June 6, 1912, one was trapped under a log in burned white spruce-paper birch 
forest on Mount Sischu just below timber-line. 
Sorex obscurus obscurus Merriam. Mountain Shrew. — One was captured 
November 13, 1911, in a cabin 10 miles north of Tanana, where he came to feed on 
dry fish. Another was trapped in willows beside the Kuskokwim near Aniak, 
August 12, 1912. 
^ Dice, L. R., Univ. Mich., Mus. Zook, Occ. Papers, No. 85. 1920. 
