In the mountains of Utah, Colorado, and northern New Mexico the northern water shrew (_Sorex palustris_) may be encountered. It is somewhat larger than the vagrant shrew and will not be seen away from water. Gray below and black above, it is wonderfully camouflaged, whether in water or on land. It, like other shrews, has long whiskers known as vibrissae. Land shrews use these whiskers as tactile organs to help them follow the dark maze of their runways. Water shrews are thought to use them as sense organs in place of eyes to pursue the minnows, tadpoles, and water bugs they eat. Actually, the water shrew resembles a large water bug as it darts about below the surface surrounded by the silvery bubbles of air imprisoned in its fine fur. Bats Order _Chiroptera_ (Latin: chir, hand, and optera, wing) The special treatment accorded bats in this book is not given them by choice. It results from an inability to so clearly describe any one or two species chosen that the layman might be able to distinguish these from their numerous and equally interesting relatives. When one considers that numerically bats are thought to compare favorably with birds, that there are a great number of species divided into many genera, and that the four-State area with which we are concerned is invaded, so to speak, by eastern, northern, western and Mexican species besides having several of its own, it soon becomes apparent that this group can be described here only in the most general way. If some of the popular superstitions about bats are contradicted here, it is to be hoped the reader will find the facts no less interesting.