(_For illustration, see page 563_)
The star-nosed mole, known in parts of Maine as the “gopher,” is
peculiar among the moles in having a fringe around the end of its nose
formed by twenty-two short fleshy tentacles. A less-marked character
is in the proportionately long tail, which becomes greatly enlarged in
fall and remains in this condition during the winter months. Otherwise
the external appearance of this species is much like that of the common
moles of America and the Old World.
The star-nosed mole is found from southern Labrador, the southern end
of Hudson Bay, and southeastern Manitoba south along the Atlantic coast
to Georgia and in the interior down the Alleghenies to North Carolina
and to Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. Throughout
this area it ranges irregularly and much yet remains to be learned
about the details of its distribution and habits.
Ordinarily solitary, these moles at times are so numerous in limited
areas that they appear to form colonies. Such gatherings probably mean
an unusually rich feeding ground, which makes it unnecessary for the
young to disperse to outlying locations, as is the habit of moles and
most other mammals.
The star-nosed mole has a strong preference for damp and even marshy
or swampy locations. It frequents low-lying meadows, the borders of
streams, and grassy swamps, where its underground burrows alternate
with open surface runways among grass roots and other matted
vegetation. It spends far more time above ground than the other
moles, and not infrequently swims among flooded cat-tails and other
vegetation and in winter has been seen swimming under the ice.
[Illustration: A RACCOON’S TRACK
The track of the raccoon is very distinctive and usually easy to find,
because it frequents the mud by the water side. Sometimes, to a casual
glance, the track of a small coon is taken for that of a large muskrat,
but their differences are very obvious.]
Like others of its kind, this mole is amazingly powerful in proportion
to its size. It persistently adds to its surface ridges, and in
constantly extending its deeper tunnels must dig loose earth and
dispose of it by forcing it up through an outlet to form the mounds
which mark the course of its travels. Where the soil is loose it
readily forces it aside with its compact body and paddle-shaped hands.
In pushing up the little piles of earth and in the ridges raised when
burrowing close to the surface it sometimes injures meadows and other
cultivated land. Occasionally it wanders away from the fields and
invades lawns and gardens, where the only injury it does is in the
disturbance of the soil.
Its nests are compact little balls of fine grass, weeds, or leaves in
dry underground chambers excavated in its burrows. The nests are a foot
or two underground, but above the level of the water, sometimes under
a stump and again in a knoll or bank. One nest containing five young
was found in Maryland in an old woodshed under several inches of chips.
This location and its choice of a site for its nest under a stump in a
field or in a dry knoll are clear indications of a kind of intelligence
which even the lowliest animals appear to have in caring for their
young.
The star-nosed mole is full of the restless energy so necessary in
a mammal which must come across its food by more or less haphazard
tunneling through the soil. It is active both summer and winter. In dry
weather as the moisture near the surface decreases the soil hardens
and earthworms and other subterranean life seek deeper levels. The
mole follows them, only to return with them nearer the surface with a
renewal of the moisture. In winter it sometimes comes out and travels
slowly about on top of the snow, ready to burrow out of sight at once,
however, at the sound of approaching footsteps.
The food of the star-nose, like that of most other moles, is made up
mainly of earthworms, white grubs, cutworms, wireworms, and other
underground insects. In captivity, before eating a worm or other flesh
food offered, it first feels of it with the little raylike organs of
touch on its nose. It is difficult to surmise the real value of these
“feelers,” for it would seem that the acute sense of smell so common to
mammals should do better service.
Aside from its disturbance of the surface soil by its ridges and
mounds, the star-nosed mole does no direct injury, and its life is
largely passed in the useful task of searching out and destroying
insects. Indirectly it causes some injury to root crops, plants of
various kinds, and fruit trees, by providing tunnels along which meadow
and pine mice travel to commit the ravages which on circumstantial
evidence are charged to the mole.
=THE COMMON SHREW= (=Sorex personatus= and its relatives)
(_For illustration, see page 566_)
Many interesting small mammals are nocturnal or lead such obscure and
hidden lives that they are rarely observed except by naturalists. Of
these are the numerous species of shrews, which include the smallest
mammals in the world. These tiny beasts all live among the vegetation
and debris on the surface of the ground or in little burrows below.
With the moles they are members of the order Insectivora and depend
mainly on insects and meat for food. Despite their minute size, they
are possessed of an indomitable courage and ferocity, which leads them
without hesitation to attack and kill mice many times their own weight.
The genus _Sorex_, of which the common shrew is a member, is
circumpolar in distribution, the various species ranging through
England, the European mainland, Asia, and North America as far south as
Guatemala.
The common shrew is a purely North American animal, occupying all
the northern part of the continent from the Arctic shores of Alaska
and Canada south to northern Nevada, South Dakota, Illinois, and
Pennsylvania, and along the Allegheny and high Rocky Mountains to North
Carolina and New Mexico. Its vertical range extends from the seacoast
up to timberline in the Rocky Mountains.
The common shrew is the smallest of the mammals in all the northern
parts of this continent, and one marvels at the possibility of such a
tiny morsel of flesh and blood withstanding the rigors of the arctic
winters. It measures about four inches in total length and weighs about
forty-five grains; the body and tail are slender, the nose long and
sharp, and the rim of the ears shows a little above the dense velvety
fur. By these characters it may be distinguished from the larger, more
heavily proportioned (and darker-colored) short-tailed shrews which
abound with it in certain parts of its range. Its smaller size and
grayish brown color are the main superficial differences between it and
other American members of the same genus. The climatic differences in
its wide range have developed several geographic races, none of which,
however, show strongly marked characters.
This shrew appears to have a most catholic taste, so far as its
surroundings are concerned, for it appears to frequent every type of
situation where shelter and food can be found. It abounds among the
peat beds and sphagnum mosses of the desolate barrens bordering on
the Arctic coast, as well as amid the rotten stumps, old logs, fallen
leaves, and other vegetable debris on the floor of the forests farther
south. It will be found also in the rank matted vegetation about
marshes, in old fields and occasional sphagnum swamps in the southern
parts of its range.
The little tunneled runways of these shrews form a network in the
beds of moss in a sphagnum swamp near Washington. In the forest the
animals always seek the cover afforded by fallen logs, slabs of bark,
or anything else that will give protection. On the coast of New Jersey
they live so near the sea that an extra high tide forces them to mount
the drift logs on the salt meadows for safety. They often make little
burrows in the soft earth under the roots of a tree, a stump, or a log.
[Illustration: THE TRAIL OF THE COMMON SKUNK
The hind foot of the skunk rarely shows the claws in the track. The
diagonal set during the gallop is characteristic (see pages 558 and
580).]
Their nests are small balls of dry leaves, grasses, or other soft
vegetable material placed snugly under a log or in a hollow stump,
burrow, or other good retreat, where they appear to have two or more
litters of from six to ten young during the summer and fall.
As in the other shrews, the food of the common species consists mainly
of insects, larvæ, worms, and obtainable flesh; but in winter and
possibly at other seasons many kinds of food are eaten, including
insects, meat, fat, flour, and seeds. During the years I passed at St.
Michael, on the coast of Bering Sea, the beginning of winter always
brought into the storehouses and dwellings a swarm of field mice,
lemmings, and these shrews. The food requirements of all appeared to be
the same, and all fed freely on the flour and other accessible stores.
Dozen of the shrews were killed in the houses every winter.
Occasionally I caught and kept one captive for a time to observe its
habits. It would be extremely restless and equally active by day
or night. The small eyes appeared of little service, but the long,
flexible snout was used constantly and served as the main reliance of
the little beast for information as to the outside world.
Wherever they travel these shrews utilize the runways of the field mice
or other small animals and make little runs of their own only where
necessary. Aside from a faint squeak, I have never heard them utter a
sound, but other observers credit them with series of fine twittering
notes apparently uttered as a song.
The common shrew is a solitary animal of so morose a disposition that
if two are placed in a cage together they almost immediately fall upon
one another with tooth and nail, and the victor devours the body of its
companion at a single meal. The digestion of shrews is so rapid and the
call for food so incessant that it requires constant activity to keep
the demand satisfied.
After the winter snow arrived in the North I found many tunnels of
these shrews running just under its surface and raising it a little
in a slight but distinctly rounded ridge. Such tunnels wandered widely
and on the ice of the Yukon River I traced one of them more than a
mile and repeatedly saw them crossing the river from bank to bank. It
was surprising to note the ability of the little travelers under the
surface to keep in so nearly a direct line for long distances.
At times these little adventurers make similar tunnels in the snow far
out on the sea ice. The mythology of the Eskimos contains accounts of
many supernatural animals which a lone hunter may meet and which have
the power to do him deadly harm. Among these the “sea shrew” is one of
the most malignant. Its appearance is described as exactly like that of
the common land shrew, but it is said to live on the ice at sea, and if
it sees a hunter to dart at him through the air, pierce the skin, and,
after running all through the body with incredible rapidity, to enter
the man’s heart and kill him. In consequence of this belief the Eskimo
hunters were in mortal terror if they chanced to encounter a stray
shrew on the sea ice. I knew one hunter who suddenly meeting one on the
ice stood motionless for hours until the shrew wandered out of sight.
He then hastened home and all the other hunters agreed he had had a
lucky escape.
[Illustration: LITTLE SKUNK, POLECAT, OR SPILOGALE
This trail combines the characteristics of the skunk with those of a
squirrel. At first it looks like the track of a stubby-toed squirrel,
but the five-inch toe on the front foot is plainly seen. The frequent
pairing of the fore paws is important. There is no tail mark (see pages
558 and 576).]
=THE SHORT-TAILED SHREW= (=Blarina brevicauda= and its
relatives)
(_For illustration, see page 566_)
Several groups of species or genera of the little mouselike animals
known as shrews are peculiar to North America. Of these one of the most
numerous and best known is the short-tailed shrew. It is a dark-colored
animal much more heavily proportioned, larger, and with a shorter tail
than the common shrew. Its fur is so thick and velvety that it is
confused by many people with the mole, despite its smaller size.
The short-tailed shrews, sometimes called mole shrews, of the genus
Blarina belong to a single species with several geographic races
occupying eastern Canada and the United States, from Nova Scotia,
southern Quebec, Ontario, Minnesota, and North Dakota southward to
Florida and the Gulf coast as far as eastern Texas. Vertically they
range from sea-level up to the tops of the Alleghenies. Another
group of American shrews, containing numerous species belonging to
the genus _Cryptotis_, occupies the mountains of the Western States,
and ranges south to northern South America. In external form it is
indistinguishable from the short-tailed species.
Probably no mammal is more numerous in the eastern United States than
the short-tailed shrew. It occurs everywhere--in forests, in brushy
areas, in old fields, and along grassy banks. Within the city of
Washington it is common in Rock Creek Park, where it lives in covered
runs which it makes among the grass and fallen leaves. These shrews
drink frequently, and this may in part account for their abundance near
streams or other water, although it may be the desirable moist soil
conditions which draw them to such situations.
[Illustration: THE TRACK OF A COMMON COW (A SMALL ONE)
It is well to take the tracks of domestic animals as standards in
identifying tracks of wild big game. The roundness of the front foot
and the narrowness of the hind are general characteristics, though not
always so pronounced as here. But note that the hind foot is set ahead,
beside, or behind the trail of the front foot, but rarely exactly on
it. This peculiarity is commonly seen in animals that are accustomed to
walk on bogs. Note also the toes are set pointing a little outward, not
straight forward. The clouts, or accessory hoofs, rarely show; only in
deep, soft ground.]
The runways of these shrews are scarcely half an inch wide, usually
partly sunken in the mold or rotting surface vegetation. These are not
made by digging, but by pushing aside the loose mold, and they cross
and re-cross in an irregular network. They lead to the entrances to
burrows which generally drop nearly straight down. The burrows are
sometimes amid the leaves, but usually under the shelter of a root,
stump, old log, or other cover. In addition to their own runways, the
shrews make free use of the runs of meadow mice and even traverse the
tunnels of the pine mice and moles in their restless search for prey.
Small rounded chambers opening off their underground runways are filled
with fine grass, pieces of leaves, and other soft matter for a nest.
One nest examined was made entirely from the hair of meadow mice,
probably the spoils of war from the bodies of victims. As a rule,
shrews are extremely unsocial, but a pair of this species is sometimes
found occupying the same nest, no doubt a temporary arrangement.
Several litters, containing from four to six each, appear to be born
through the summer and fall, usually beginning in June.
While equally active by day and by night, the eyes of these shrews seem
to be of little use except to distinguish between light and dark, but
their senses of hearing and smell are highly developed, as is also the
sense of touch in their long hairs, or “whiskers,” about the nose.
In captivity an extreme sensitiveness is exhibited to sudden sounds,
especially such as those of a bird’s wings, indicating an instinctive
fear born of age-long persecution by birds of prey. Food is located
by smell, and as the flexible end of the snout is moved continually
from side to side, odors are caught which may register conceptions as
definite in the minds of these small animals as sight does in more
favored beasts. All shrews are provided with musk glands and on account
of these are apparently nauseous to most other animals, as they are
rarely eaten by beasts of prey. These musky secretions must be of great
service to facilitate them in locating one another.
[Illustration: THE SHORT-TAILED SHREW, OR BLARINA
The curious grooved track in the snow with the tail mark is seen on the
left (see pages 566 and 593).]
Like other shrews and the moles, their digestion appears to be very
rapid and they will eat two or three times their own weight in a
day. This necessitates great activity on their part during much of
the time in order to find the required food. They prefer insects and
meat, but are practically omnivorous, feeding not only upon many kinds
of insects, but on earthworms, slow-worms, sow-bugs, snails, slugs,
mice, shrews, and the young of ground-nesting birds, as well as such
vegetable food as beechnuts, seeds, bread, and oatmeal.
The instinct of prevision against the season of winter scarcity appears
to be developed in them, as one in captivity buried beechnuts in the
earth, and they are known to store living snails in small piles and to
gather disabled beetles in store-rooms in their tunnels.
The courage and blind ferocity of the short-tailed shrews when they
are placed near captive mice far larger than themselves, is amazing
to all who witness their encounters. They attack instantly, spreading
their front feet to gain a firmer footing and moving forward in
little rushes. Mice larger and much more powerful than the shrew are
persistently attacked and, finally giving out, are pounced upon and the
flesh torn from their heads and necks with ravening eagerness. One day
a passing observer heard a loud squealing on a railroad bank where an
examination revealed a short-tailed shrew dragging away a nearly dead
pine mouse, though the mouse was much the heavier. The notes of shrews
are a fine tremulous squeak which becomes a longer, harsher, and more
twittering or chattering cry when they are angry.
[Illustration: DOG GALLOPING IN SNOW
Showing the curious change whereby the right front ceases to take first
place; no doubt this rests the muscles a little. This is typical of
many animals (see page 597).]
No cessation of their activity occurs in winter. When the cold weather
begins many gather about barns and houses located near woods or old
fields, and thus with the field mice take advantage of the garnered
food supplies and shelter. Others remain in their regular haunts, where
they frequently burrow long distances in the snow, making networks of
tunnels and traveling long distances just below the surface, leaving
little raised ridges like the track of a mole on the ground. Their
journeys upon and under the surface of the snow appear to be in search
of food, as they burrow down to old logs and stumps which make good
feeding grounds. Their movements are very active, as they go about
either at a walk or quick trot.
These fierce and truculent little hunters are wholly beneficial in
their habits and should be encouraged in place of being killed on sight
indiscriminately, as one of the ordinary mouse tribe.