Notes on the Life History of Napaeozapus

Abstract

General collecting and study of small mammals from central and northern New Hampshire has resulted in an accumulation of data based upon the capture of 221 specimens of Napaeozapus insignis insignis (Miller). Most of the collecting has been the result of brief and sporadic trips, chiefly to Pinkham Notch situated in extreme northeastern Carroll County, at an altitude of 2,025 feet. This mountain pass lies at the eastern base of the Presidential Range. However, a few trap lines were established at nearby points in the range where ecological conditions seemed favorable for the animal and were, at the same time, not unduly different from those within Pinkham Notch itself. The general topographic, floral and faunal features are so well known as to obviate the necessity of detailed descriptions except as they seem to apply to this particular species of rodent. The Presidential and Carter ranges, whose slopes form the narrow defile known as Pinkham Notch, are irregularly sculptured by several ravines, with Tuckerman and Huntington ravines the most prominent. The forested floors of both ravines are occupied by several small streams that that have their origin from springs located on the upper slopes of Mount Washington. From here, they pursue steep and rocky courses through a dense forest growth composed predominantly of black and white spruce, balsam fir, and yellow birch. The edges of these streams, both within the ravines and those in Pinkham Notch proper, are lined with alders. The flora in Pinkham Notch consists of scattered black and white spruce and a more extensive growth of sugar maple, beech, and yellow birch that attains an average height of about sixty feet. The lower zone of vegetation consists of sapling sugar maples, yellow and black birches, and hobble-bush, while the normally moist ground supports isolated patches of ferns, grass, …