List of Species
Didelphis virginiana virginiana. Virginia Opossum.—This species is rare in the county. One was taken by my father, Jessup S. Wood, in 1845, in Lodi Township. We have later records for Ann Arbor, Dexter, Manchester, Saline, and Scio Township. The last recorded specimen was taken by some boys in November, 1921, just south of the Oakland County line.
February 5, 1912, a trapper took a specimen near Ann Arbor on a night when the temperature was about 10° F. below zero.
Scalopus aquaticus machrinus. Prairie Mole.—The mole was rare or absent from the county when first settled, but it has gradually increased and has spread over most of the cultivated lands. It is most common in sandy or gravelly loams, and is absent from the hard clay soils. I remember the first appearance of the species on the old Wood homestead in Lodi Township about 1870. It soon became common.
Condylura cristata. Star-nosed Mole.—Although not very rare in this county, it is seldom seen. We have records for Lodi Township, Ann Arbor, Webster Township, Ypsilanti, and Chelsea. It prefers low, marshy land near the water, and much of its food consists of aquatic insects, which it secures by swimming. It is not as well adapted for burrowing as the preceding species, so it lives in softer soil.
May 8, 1913, a nest containing six half-grown young was found by Kitt Cobb in marshy ground beside the Huron River at Portage Lake. The nest was in a good-sized cavity near the surface of the ground and was lined with dried grass. This species sometimes comes out on the surface of the ground, where I have found several individuals in early spring, most of them dead. February 10, 1907, near Ann Arbor, A. D. Tinker heard one tunneling in the snow and dug it out.
Sorex personatus. Masked Shrew.—In this county the masked shrew is usually found in sphagnum and tamarack bogs. There are records for a tamarack bog, three miles south of Ann Arbor, and for Honey Creek, three miles west of Ann Arbor. I have found it mostly under old logs and in stumps in rather moist situations.
Blarina brevicauda talpoides. Short-tailed Shrew.—Common in swamps, woodlands, and even in meadows, where it has its own runways and also uses those of the meadow mouse, on which it largely feeds.
This shrew is diurnal as well as nocturnal, and I have often seen it in its runways. It is active all winter, and its tunnels may often be seen in the snow. While trapping in Steere's Swamp, south of Ann Arbor, a Synaptomys cooperi in a trap was eaten by one of these shrews, which was later caught in the same trap.
Cryptotis parva. Small Shrew.—The first record for the county was obtained in 1902 at Ann Arbor. In February, 1904, one was found in a barn three miles east of Ann Arbor. At Portage Lake, in 1916, a house cat brought two individuals to her kittens on October 29 and 31, respectively. The specimens taken by me were found in grassy places, usually where briers and shrubs were intermingled with the grass, but not in the woods.