SHREW FAiMILY 



;ii 



N. Rhoads. " I venture that ninety per cent of 

 the persons I have conversed with on the subject 

 have had no idea of Shrews other than the kind 

 depicted in Shakespeare's comedy, and when I 

 i:;ravely state to them that I have caught so many 

 Shrews the effect is rather amusing. Though 

 rarely seen, even by the most curious observers 

 of nature, the subject of this article far out- 

 numbers any other species of native mamma! 

 found in eastern North America. 



" This species stands pre-eminent above all 

 others of our mammals in its abundance and 

 universality of distribution in all conceivable 

 situations. Not a place have I trapped over in 

 the two States (New Jersey and Pennsylvania) 

 but what it was among the tirst to be caught. 

 It is found in our deepest, coldest mountain 

 ravines, on the stony, barren movmtain top, in 

 the banks and valleys of low tide-water streams 

 and the maritime marshes, and delights in roving 

 from the cool sphagnum bogs of the New Jersey 

 cedar swamps, where the temperature may be 

 below 60 degrees, to the hot sand barrens of the 

 adjoining fields with a midday heat of no 

 degrees. Forest and plain, sand and clay, barren 

 or fruitful fields, backwoods and dooryard, heat 

 and cold, wet and dry, day and night, have com- 

 mon charms for this little cosmojiolite." 



Like other members of the family it is both in- 

 sectivorous and carnivorous, depending almost 

 wholly on animal food for subsistence, and with 

 its near kinsman the Mole, which it greatly re- 

 sembles, is supposed to feed principally on 

 worms. In view of their great numbers we 

 naturally ask what economic relations they 

 bear to man and to nature. Undoubtedly the 

 jjurely mechanical effect of their universal bur- 

 rowing and rooting in the soil is an important 

 factor. It is known that they subsist to some 

 e.xtent on vegetable food, chiefly nuts, but they 

 do only indirect damage to agriculture by dis- 

 turbing the roots of plants. On the other hand, 

 there is little doubt that they destroy an amazing 

 number of noxious grubs, beetles and worms, 

 and it is probable that the part they play as un- 

 derground scavengers is important. They also 

 do much in checking the increase of the native 

 ■Mice of our meadows and woodlands. 



Theodore Roosevelt says : " When a boy I 

 captured one of these Mole Shrews and found 

 to my astonishment that he was a blood-thirsty 

 and formidable little beast of prey. He speedily 

 killed and ate a partially grow-n White-footed 

 Mouse which I put in the same cage with him. 



( I think a full-grown Mouse of this kind would 

 be an overmatch for a Shrew). 1 then put a 

 small snake in with him. The Shrew was very 

 active, but seemed nearly blind, and as he ran 

 to and fro he never seemed to be aware of the 

 presence of anything living until he was close to 

 it, when he would instantly spring on it like a 

 tiger. On this occasion he attacked the little 

 snake with great ferocity, and after an animated 

 struggle in which the little snake whipped and 

 rolled all around the cage, throwing the Shrew to 

 and fro a dozen times, the latter killed and ate 

 the snake in triumph." 



From West Va. University Experiment Station 



Diagram showing burrows used by Short-tailed Shrews in search- 

 ing for insect food. The burrows occurred in thirty-six square- 

 feet of ground under a chestnut tree in the woods 



That they prey upon each other on occasion is 

 also certain. Dr. Merriam once confined three 

 of them under an ordinary tumbler. Almost im- 

 mediately they commenced fighting, and in a few 

 minutes one was slaughtered and eaten by the 

 other two. Before night, one of these killed 

 and ate its only surviving companion. The appe- 

 tite of these .Shrews is simply enormous ; it is 

 estimated that they consume twice the weight 

 of their own bodies in twenty-four hours. The 

 same observer states that they are fond of beech- 

 nuts, and will eat corn and oats at a pinch. " One 

 evening not long ago," he relates, " I put a 

 handful of beechnuts in a Shrew's water saucer. 

 He soon found them and carried them oft'. Part 

 he buried in a hole under the saucer, part under 

 his nest, and the rest in an excavation near one 

 corner of the box. This certainlv looks as if the 



