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.
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.