MILLER: MAMMALS OF ONTARIO. 
35 
Sorex fumeus Miller. 
The smoky shrew is apparently uncommon at North Bay, as I was 
unable to secure more than one specimen. I did not find the animal 
on the north shore of Lake Superior. 
“ Scarce at Mount Forest; met with in wet evergreen woods only. 
Not found at Milton” (Brooks). 
Not mentioned by Gapper. 
Sorex personatus I. Geoff. St. Hilaire. 
The masked shrew is common everywhere at North Bay except 
in the clearings. It is excessively abundant at both Peninsula Har¬ 
bor and Nepigon. 
Common at Mount Forest and tolerably common at Milton 
(Brooks). 
Mentioned by Gapper under the name Sorex forsteri. 
While the specimens taken by Mr. Brooks at Mount Forest are 
true S. personatus, those from North Bay differ slightly from the 
typical form, and those from the north shore of Lake Superior are 
almost different enough to warrant separation as a distinct sub¬ 
species. The characters by which these specimens differ from the 
subspecies personatus are in the direction of the large, dark, Alas¬ 
kan subspecies streatori 1 and not in the least toward the small, 
pale, plains form sometimes recognized as the subspecies haydeni. 
Until the geographic range and individual variations of Sorex 
personatus streatori are better known than at present, I prefer 
to let the Lake Superior specimens stand as Sorex personatus , 
without attempting to refer them to their proper subspecies. It is 
almost certain, however, that they cannot be considered S. per¬ 
sonatus personatus. In color the Lake Superior shrews do not 
differ appreciably from typical S. personatus of the Transition zone 
in the eastern United States, but in size they are much larger. 
Eight specimens from Nepigon and Peninsula Harbor average: 
total length, 105; tail vertebrae, 44.2; hind foot, 12. Five speci¬ 
mens of S. personatus personatus from Tuckerton, N. J., average: 
total length, 98.6; tail vertebrae, 40.6; hind foot, 12.8. Elight of 
the same subspecies from Montauk Point, N. Y., average : total 
length, 98.3; tail vertebrae, 38; hind foot, 12.1. Eight specimens 
s 
iMerriam, North Amer. Fauna, No. 10, p. G‘2-03. 
