Little is known of the habits of dusky shrews but they seem to be as diurnal as they are nocturnal. At Wolf Bar, North Fork of the Quinault River, Jefferson County, a dusky shrew was seen on the packed-earth floor of an old trapper's cabin. A hat was carefully dropped over the live animal but, when the hat was lifted, the shrew was found dead. In an old cabin at Stevens Pass, King County, a dusky shrew was found dead one morning in a pan of flapjack batter prepared the evening before. As this pan was on a table about three feet from the floor, the shrew must have climbed to the table by way of the rough cabin wall, but how the animal managed to scale the side of the pan is a mystery. Slipp (1942: 211) discovered the nest of a dusky shrew between Round Pass and Lake George, 4200 feet elevation, in Mt. Rainier National Park, on July 25, 1937. The nest was in a rotten fir log 20 inches in diameter. The nest, a ball of dry grass the size of a man's fist, had no central cavity or passages, the occupants "merely pushed through wherever they wished." Seven young shrews were found in and near the nest. Though the eyes of the young were still closed, they were able to creep about and squeal. A specimen obtained 5 miles west-southwest of Guler, Skamania County, contained 4 embryos on July 10, 1939. [Illustration: FIG. 30. Distribution of the dusky shrew in Washington. A. _Sorex obscurus obscurus._ B. _Sorex obscurus setosus._] =Sorex obscurus obscurus= Merriam _Sorex vagrans similis_ Merriam, N. Amer. Fauna, 5: 34, July 30, 1891 (not of Hensel, 1855). _Sorex obscurus_ Merriam, N. Amer. Fauna, 10: 72, December 31, 1895 (substitute for _similis_ Merriam). _Type._--Obtained on Timber Creek, 8,200 ft., Lemhi Mountains, Lemhi County, Idaho, by V. Bailey and B. H. Dutcher on August 26, 1890; type in United States National Museum. _Racial characters._--Tail relatively short, color pale. _Measurements._--Thirteen males and 10 females from Indian-point Lake, British Columbia, average, respectively: total length 105, 107; length of tail 45, 46; hind foot 13.3, 13.3. _Distribution._--Northeastern Washington west, according to Jackson (1928: 122), to Pasayten River, Stehekin and Wenatchee. Because specimens from Tye, King County, and Mt. Stuart, Easton and Lake Keechelus are clearly referable to _S. o. setosus_, the specimens recorded by Jackson (1928: 122), from Easton and Signal Peak, are mapped in the range of _setosus_. =Sorex obscurus setosus= Elliot _Sorex setosus_ Elliot, Field Columb. Mus. Publ. 32. zoöl. ser., 1:274. March, 1899. _Sorex obscurus setosus_ Jackson, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington. 31:127. November 29, 1918. _Sorex obscurus bairdi_ Jackson, N. Amer. Fauna, 51:140. July 24, 1928.