CONCERNING SHREWS. 663 



The one doubtful sign, it appears to me, as regards the future, 

 is pointed at by the qualification implied in the words the human 

 being ivlw really belongs to the new society. It may possibly hap- 

 pen that there will be an increase, or at least non-diminution, of 

 what may be called the social wreckage. A class may continue 

 to exist and even increase in the midst of our civilization, possibly 

 not a large class in proportion, but still a considerable class, who 

 are out of the improvement altogether, who are capable of noth- 

 ing but the rudest labor, and who have neither the moral nor 

 the mental qualities fitted for the strain of the work of modern 

 society. On the other side, as already hinted, the existence of 

 what may be called a barbarian class among the capitalist classes, 

 living in idle luxury and not bearing the burden of society in any 

 way, seems also a danger. But speculations of this sort would 

 perhaps take us too far at present. Substantially, as yet, there 

 seems to be ho reason to doubt the steadiness of the improvement 

 in recent years among the working classes, both those practically 

 so called and those who may be included when we use the lan- 

 guage in its widest that is, the strictly economic sense, and 

 that this improvement goes on from year to year, and from gen- 

 eration to generation, and must, in the nature of things, go on, 

 in consequence of the improvements and inventions of the modern 

 world and the general spread of education, so long as nothing- 

 happens to prevent a continuous improvement in the efficiency of 

 human labor and the average return it can obtain from the forces 

 with which it works. Contemporary Review, 



CONCERNING SHREWS, 



Bt frederik a. fernald. 



THE shrews, or shrew mice, as they are often called from their 

 mouse-like size and general appearance, are nearly related to 

 the moles, but may be distinguished from them by their distinct 

 outer ear and the moderate size of their fore-paws, which are not 

 usually employed in digging. They have a long, pointed muzzle, 

 with two very long cutting teeth in each jaw the upper much 

 curved and the lower nearly horizontal. Their other teeth are 

 many-pointed, being thus adapted to seizing the worms and 

 crushing the hard wing-cases of the beetles which form their 

 food. They also sometimes destroy small vertebrates and devour 

 each other. Most species of shrews live on the surface of the 

 ground, and a few in burrows. They do not hibernate. They 

 take their food at night. They are spread over the northern 

 hemisphere, sometimes going very far north, and the smaller spe- 



