48 Mammals of Eastern Asia 
ties in the ground or in banks, are made of fine grass and any- 
soft material available. Litters of from 4 to 10 young are said 
to be produced. The young are born hairless, blind, and entirely 
helpless. Six weeks later they can forage for themselves. Shrews 
do not hibernate; winter nests for shelter in the north may 
often be found under the snow. Sorex araneus is said to molt 
three times a year — from April to May, from the end of July to 
August, and from the end of September to October. 
In Russia the skins of Shrews were once placed in chests con- 
taining clothing in order to keep moths away. The musky odor 
was thought to act as a repellent ; and perhaps it did ! In by-gone 
days Shrews bore bad reputations. Their bites were feared by 
country folk more than those of spiders; in England they were 
more dreaded than adders or vipers. One sixteenth-century 
naturalist wrote of the shrew : "It is a ravenous beast, feigning 
itself gentle and tame, but being touched, it biteth deep, and 
poisoneth deadly. It beareth a cruel mind, desiring to hurt any- 
thing, neither is there any creature that it loveth, or it loveth 
him, because it is feared by all . . ." Strange to relate, this fear 
of the bites of Shrews is also prevalent in Bengal and southern 
India. In that case it relates to the genera Suncus and Croci- 
dura. 
Until a year or so ago it was agreed that Shrews were harm- 
less. Recently evidence has been produced to show that the bite 
of the American Short-tailed Shrew may really be poisonous to 
small animals. Preparations from the submaxillary gland in- 
jected into mice and rabbits were found to be lethal. 
The many sorts of Shrews of the genus Sorex found in 
America are divided into two chief sections. Those two sections 
depend upon whether the third unicuspid tooth is larger or 
smaller than the fourth. Only about one-third of American 
species belong to the first of these sections. The species of the 
Old World, apparently without exception, belong also to this 
first section. There seems to exist no representative of the sec- 
