[Illustration: FIG. 22. Distribution of the Gibbs shrew-mole in Washington. A. _Neurotrichus gibbsii gibbsii._ B. _Neurotrichus gibbsii minor._] Shrew-moles are both diurnal and nocturnal. They rest or sleep periodically, the length of their rest or sleep being longer when much food is eaten, and the intervals between their periods of rest or sleep is longer when less food is eaten. Owls and snakes appear to be their principal enemies. Predatory mammals eat some shrew-moles, and probably kill many that they do not eat. Shrew-moles are completely blind, and their long, prehensile nose guides all their activity. Their ordinary movements on the surface of the ground are slow and cautious. When frightened they break into a scuttling rush which ends beneath a leaf or bit of bark where the animal becomes motionless. Shrew-moles, on the surface of the ground, make considerable noise. They construct molelike burrows, but these are not as extensive or complicated as those of moles. The shrew-mole hunts for food in shallow trenches that it makes just under the layer of dead leaves and vegetable debris that covers the ground in their habitat. The food of the shrew-moles includes earthworms, isopods, insect larvae, soft-bodied insects, and other animal matter. Some vegetable matter is eaten. Breeding takes place at all seasons of the year, save perhaps in December and January. Embryos vary from one to four. The nest of a shrew-mole at Seattle, King County, consisted of a handful of damp leaves in a cavity of a rotten, punky, alder stump. The nest contained four half-grown young. =Neurotrichus gibbsii gibbsii= (Baird) _Urotrichus gibbsii_ Baird, Mamm. N. Amer., p. 76, 1857. _Neurotrichus [sic] gibbsii_ Günther, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, pl. 42, 1880. _Neurotrichus Gibbsii_ True, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 7 (1884):607, 1885. _Neurotrichus gibbsii_ Bryant, Zoe. 1:359, February, 1891. _Neurotrichus gibbsii gibbsii_ Miller, U. S. Nat. Mus. Bull., 79:11, December 31, 1912. _Type._--Obtained at Naches Pass, 4,500 ft., Pierce County, Washington, by G. Gibbs on July 15, 1854 (see Dalquest and Burgner, 1941); type in United States National Museum. _Racial characters._--Size relatively large; tail relatively long; foreclaws straight on ventral surface. _Measurements._--Two females from Tye, 4,000 ft., Stevens Pass, King County, average: total length, 121.5; length of tail, 45; length of hind foot, 18. _Distribution._--The Cascade Mountains, from British Columbia south, and Destruction Island, Jefferson County. Records of occurrence are Baker Lake (J. M. E.), Tye (M. V. Z.), and Mount Rainier (Mount Rainier Ntl. Park Mus.)