GENERAL NOTES 
111 
the far side of the room by tapping on the carpet with my fingers and when he 
comes up, possibly with the expectation of being fed, he shows his displeasure 
by snuffing and butting at my hand. Whenever I try to pick him up he hugs 
the floor, sniffs, and butts sidewise at my hand. A bowl of drinking water on 
the floor he tipped over on its side, and then, putting his nose against it, rolled 
it about the room; went away, but came back and repeated the performance 
several times. These animals seem to be incapable of digging. I have had six 
of them for over a week confined in a wire enclosure built on the ground and 
they have made only feeble attempts to dig out. 
August 15. Notwithstanding that I have been told repeatedly that hedgehogs 
eat berries greedily, I have not succeeded in coaxing my pet to do so, although 
there has been a handful each of strawberries, huckleberries, and squawberries 
in a corner of the room for two days. When he sleeps, unless he is confined in 
a small space, he does not roll up, but lies on his side half coiled like a dog. 
August 17. My little Erinaceus spent the day — dark and rainy — running about 
the room. He stands high and at any sudden noise, such as the slamming of the 
door or dropping of a book, jumps nervously. At the first sign of danger he squats, 
ducks his head, and throws the spines on his head forward preparatory to rolling 
up. Several times he has bitten my fingers but it is never more than a hard 
pinch. I gave him a small Microtus and two Sorex and in eating the last Sorex it 
took him exactly sixteen and a half minutes. I have just finished making up 
the skins of five adult animals of this species. Adhering to the skin on the back, 
and between the fat on the body and the skin, is a sheet of fleshy muscle an eighth 
of an inch in thickness which terminates abruptly and is much thicker at its outer 
edge. This fleshy muscle, covering the area occupied by the spines, is similar 
to that found on the skin of a porcupine and probably is for the purpose of erect- 
ing the spines. A broad and much thicker band of muscle encircles the entire 
body at a point where the spines and the hair unite. It passes over the top of 
the head and acts as a puckering string when the animal curls up. To do this, 
he simply ducks his head, humps his back, and contracts the muscle band. By 
placing my fingers against his belly and tickling until he curls up, I can distinctly 
feel this band. Last night my pet managed to climp up on the bed and wakened 
me by sniffing and butting sidewise against my cheek. — J. Alden Loring, Owego, 
N. Y. 
SHREWS AND WEASELS 
It is pretty generally known that most animals, both wild and domestic, will 
not eat the short-tailed shrew (Blarina) and the distaste for the little mammal 
seems to be shared by the weasel. Is the aversion mutual? 
In December the writer had a trap set for weasels under a brushy fence. The 
place was infested with blarinas and they were attracted to the rabbit bait and 
caught regularly. A weasel v/ill take almost any kind of bait in the form of 
flesh, but tracks in the snow showed that if a Bonaparte weasel approached the 
trap when it held a shrew, it kept at a distance of four inches and refused to touch 
the bait. The Blarina was removed and the next morning the trap held a weasel. 
The snow indicated that blarinas had run back and forth under the brush several 
times but the weasel was untouched. White-footed mice and field mice (Pero- 
myscus and Microtus), which had previously been caught in the trap, were almost 
entirely consumed by the shrews. — George L. Kirk, Rutland, Vermont. 
