A small, grayish brown shrew. Summer pelage is brown above, gray and somewhat buffy below; tail is indistinctly bicolored to the tip, dark above and buff below; winter pelage is paler and grayer, especially dorsally; third upper unicuspids are smaller than the fourth, and the fifth are smaller than the third; total length is 82-105 mm (mean 89.9 mm); tail length is 27-45 mm (mean 37.9 mm); mass is 1.8-3.2 g; condylobasal length of skull is less than 15.2 mm (Hoffman and Owen 1980).