Object Status:
Unlocated
Accession Date:
February 17, 1795
Primary Source Reference:
Gazette of the United States (Philadelphia), 17 Feb 1795
Additional Source Text:
"Which 'seems to form the shade in the order of small animals, and so fill up the vacuum between the rat and the mole.'"
Notes:
There are at least half a dozen species of shrew found in Pennsylvania. The masked shrew (Sorex cinereus), pictured here, is found throughout the state.
The quotation is from Buffon. See his Natural History of Man, the Globe, and of Quadrupeds (New York, 1857), p. 277.
Benjamin Smith Barton (1766-1815) was an American botanist, naturalist, and physician. He was a member of the American Philosophical Society and a Visitor of the Peale Museum.
Peale's Common Name:
Shrew mouse
Current Common Name:
Masked shrew
Current Scientific Name
Sorex cinereus
