THE PYGMY OR LESSER SHREW 121 



Regarding the care of shrews in captivity, Mr A. H. Cocks 

 writes me that he knows of no practical way of trapping them 

 aUve, for though they will probably go into almost any form of 

 live trap, a few minutes' detention therein is fatal, in a ratio 

 varying with the size of the species. 



" Pygmy Shrews I have never kept alive, because the transit 

 from field to cage in a man's hand, even if it is only a few hundred 

 yards, is either immediately fatal, or is so within the next hour 

 or two. I frequently provide a tin with ventilation holes 

 punched, when hay or other field work is in progress (especially 

 when mangolds or swedes are being taken from a clamp), but 

 no shrew is caught that day, or the next, and when at last one 

 is captured, the tin is not forthcoming. 



" With Common Shrews, which are so very much more 

 numerous, as well as stronger, I do from time to time get one 

 alive into a cage, but a rather large proportion die during the en- 

 suing night. I have been careless in noting dates of arrival, but 

 three months is probably about the extent to which one has lived. 



** Insectivores, like nearly all other mammals, require to 

 drink a good deal, and should invariably have a supply of 

 water in captivity. 



"As regards food, shrews, like moles, to which they are 

 very similar, have an extraordinarily rapid digestion, and 

 therefore require to eat at short intervals. A handful of 

 worms twice a day suffices, because they disable each worm 

 in turn, preventing it from crawling away by biting it along its 

 whole length, and then bury it in the moss or other vegetable 

 nesting-material provided, whence they excavate their helpless 

 victims and devour them as appetite demands." 



From the above notes, compared with those of other natura- 

 lists who have captured and kept the Common Shrew alive, it 

 may be inferred that, although so indefatigable in pursuit of their 

 prey, the intelligence of the shrews is not of a very high order. 



It is evident that the snout is the seat of specially strong 

 organs of sense, enabling the little animals to secure their 

 often agile prey by scent, without the assistance of the tiny eyes.^ 



1 Since the above was written, Adams has specially studied the eyesight of a 

 captive Common Shrew, and reports that it is "as blind as the mole," thus confirming 

 Ernest Thompson Seton's poor opinion (ii., 1 100) of the eyesight of American shrews. 

 VOL. II. I 



