Range: Confined to mountains of western United States and Canada, and northern and southern Mexico. [Illustration: Habitat map] Habitat: Moist places in forests of the Transition Life Zones and higher. Description: A tiny creature with a long nose. Total length 4 to 5 inches. Tail 1½ to 2 inches. Color reddish brown to black above with sides drab and lightening to gray below. Tail indistinctly bi-color except for the last half which is dark all the way around. Head round and narrowing to a long, pointed, somewhat flexible nose. Long whiskers are found along the sides of the upper jaw. Eyes and ears so small as to be difficult to see. Little is known of breeding habits of the shrews. The vagrant shrew is said to breed at any time of year and to have from 5 to 11 young in a litter. Shrews are the smallest American mammals. Their size and secretive habits combine to make them among the least known of native animals. They are classed as insectivores, although they eat other small mammals as well as insects. They may be distinguished from mice by their bicuspid incisors and modified canine teeth. Another difference is that shrews have five toes, in contrast to the four-toed feet of mice. [Illustration: vagrant shrew] As far as is known at present, certain species of shrews are the only poisonous mammals. The big short-tailed shrew (eastern United States) has a toxic substance in its saliva which helps subdue some of the animals it captures. It is thought that some western species also have this peculiarity. Though shrews are among the tiniest animals known, they are not unduly persecuted by larger predators. This is thought to be partly because of certain glands on the shrew’s body which give it an offensive odor. An outstanding characteristic of shrews is their need for a constant supply of food. Because all small animals lose heat quickly, they must eat almost constantly to replace this loss. Some species will eat their own weight in food as often as every 3 hours. An outstanding exception is the water shrew, which can do without food for as long as 2 days without starving to death. Since most shrews live in or near the water, they find ample food in the insects, spiders, minnows, and small mammals which live in moist locations. The group is as ferocious as it is voracious. Most shrews do not hesitate to attack animals outweighing them several times. It has been said that if shrews were as big as squirrels they probably would even attack man.