INSEOTIVORA 97 



Like the other members of their order Insectivora 

 these tiny creatures are voracious feeders^ nor can 

 they suffer hunger for any length of time^ and live. 

 So he who would keep any of them in captivity must 

 devote his time diligently to feeding them^ rising 

 early and going to bed late, and feeding them con- 

 tinuously and in quantity^ out of all proportion to 

 their size. I have never succeeded in keeping a 

 mole alive more than four days, being then utterly 

 wearied in my efforts to obtain an adequate supply 

 of worms. But time and strength would not be 

 thrown away in an effort to keep these animals, 

 because so little is known of their habits. 



Shrews are, however, most pugnacious little 

 creatures, fighting desperately and devouring the 

 fallen. Therefore it is useless to attempt to keep 

 more than a pair of shrews in one cage. 



Shrews being so small of stature, and feeding- 

 only on the flesh of animals which are destructive 

 to the crops grown by man, they are perfectly harm- 

 less creatures, but were they as large as lions and 

 tigers, their teeth would be deadly instruments of 

 destruction, and by their fierceness and voracity they 

 would rapidly depopulate the whole earth. Fortu- 

 nately, then, the shrews are all diminutive creatures. 



The Rev. Edward Topsell says of the shrew in 

 his ' Historic of Fourfooted Beastes,' published 

 1658, p. 406 : 



" It is a ravening beaste feigning itself gentle and 

 tame, but, being touched, it biteth deep and poysoneth 

 deadly. It beareth a cruel mind, desiring to hurt 

 anything, neither is there any creature that it loveth, 



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