THE COMMON SHREW 99 



One possessed for a fortnight by Mr Henry Barclay^ would 

 eat two or three dozen cockroaches in a night, seizing them 

 behind the head and devouring from thence backwards all 

 except the hard portions of the legs and wing-cases. In its 

 habits it was very active, always on the move, and usually 

 making a shrill squeaking noise while hunting for food. When 

 frightened it emitted a disagreeable musky smell. 



E. R. Alston^ kept a Common Shrew for a few days in a 

 box with moss, and observed that it seized house-flies with a 

 spring, eating seven or eight at a time ; if more than that 

 number were given to it, it hid them amongst the moss in its 

 box. " Small worms were caught by one end and munched 

 slowly without being bitten through. On giving it a large 

 one (about four or five inches long) it gave it a sharp bite, then 

 sprang back, then flew at it again, until the worm was half- 

 dead, when it ate about half and hid the rest. It slept during 

 the middle of the day, rolled up among the moss, but always 

 waked up at once if worms or flies were put into the box." 

 Alston believed that "when pressed for food, shrews will kill 

 and eat frogs, but when a large one was placed in the box 

 the present specimen did not seem inclined to prey upon it, 

 although now and then it gave it a slight bite on the hind 

 leg ; after they had been together for some hours the poor 

 frog was taken away. The shrew seemed to be very cleanly, 

 constantly dressing its fur and * washing ' its face with its fore- 

 paws, as rabbits do." 



The late Mrs Eliza Brightwen also wrote ^ a very entertain- 

 ing account of a shrew which made for itself, inside the glass 

 globe in which it lived, a domed nest with three entrances and 

 covered runs. It was so voracious that "a full-grown mouse 

 will barely supply enough food for . . . four-and-twenty hours." 



Anyone who wishes to amplify the above observations can 

 easily do so, since this Shrew is one of the most easily trapped, 

 and perhaps the most universally abundant of all our small 

 mammals, in this respect vying with small rodents and coming 

 to almost any bait.* It seems to have no fear or suspicion of 



^ Zoologist, 1848, 1957. ^ Journ. cii., 1864, 9358-9359. 



3 More About Wild Nature, 1892, 3-10. 

 * R. I. Pocock has used plum pudding. 



