DEKAY’S SHREW. 
247 
DIMENSIONS. 
Female, captured in the garden at Minniesland near New York. 
From point of nose to root of tail, - 
Tail (vertebras), - 
“ (to end of hair), 
From heel to point of longest nail, - 
Breadth of fore-foot, 
Male, one eighth of an inch longer than the female. 
Inches. 
- 
- 1 
- ItV 
8 
HABITS. 
We have always found it difficult to obtain satisfactory information as 
to the habits of the smaller quadrupeds, from the fact that many of our 
fax mers and theii men are unacquainted with the generic and even specific 
names, and consequently often mistake the habits of some genus or species 
for those of a very distinct one. The various species belonging to the 
genera Scalops, Condylura, and Sorex , are in most cases called (and consi- 
dered to be) “ ground moles,” and thus are represented as all possessing 
the same habits. The gardener who caught for us the two specimens above 
described, said they were ground moles. On showing him that they were 
smaller, and had very different feet from those of any animal belonging to 
the genus Scalops, he said “ they were only young ones, that their feet 
would become large by next year.” On asking him about their nests, he 
said they were not old enough as yet to have young. When we requested 
him to show us their holes he first directed us to the ridges made in the 
soil by the ground mole. 
After a careful examination, however, we ascertained that DeIvay’s 
Shrew burrows deeper in the earth than Scalops aquaticus. The galleries 
of S. DeKayi run along at the depth of about a foot from the surface, and 
have apertures leading up to the open air at short distances from each 
other, by which the animals have ingress or egress. Ground moles seek 
woi'ms and insects in the earth, whereas the Shrews come abroad on the 
suiface, and run over the ground at night in quest of food, a habit in which 
the mole does not appear to indulge. 
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 
We received specimens of this small animal from Mr. Cooper, who 
obtained them in New Jersey ; also one from Albany. We were present 
