434 THE ERD SHREW, OR SHREW-MOUSE. 
cannot be mistaken for those of any other animal. Their peculiarities are mostly 
remarkable in the incisor teeth, which are extremely long; those of the upper jaw being 
curved and notched at their base, while those of the lower jaw project almost horizontally. 
There are no canines, and the molars differ shghtly in arrangement, according to the 
species. In the Erd Shrew the tips of the teeth are tinged with a blood-coloured brown. 
The head of the Shrew is rather long, and its apparent length is increased by the long 
and flexible nose which gives so peculiar an aspect to the animal, and serves to distinguish 
it at a glance from the common mouse, which it so nearly resembles in general shape and 
colour, The object of this elongated nose is supposed to be for the purpose of enabling 
the animal to root in the eround after the various creatures on which it feeds, or to thrust 
its head among the densest and closest herbage. Many insects and their larvee are found 
in such localities, and it is upon such food that the Shrew chiefly subsists. Worms are 
also captured and eaten by the 
Shrew, which in many of its 
habits is not unlike the mole. 
The habitation of the Shrew 
is in certain little subterraneous 
tunnels, which it excavates in the 
soil, and which serve as a hunting- 
eround as well as a home. Like 
the mole, the Shrew is very im- 
patient of hunger, and cannot 
endure a protracted fast, although 
it may not be so inordinately vora- 
cious as that velvet-coated animal, 
which it is said will die of hunger 
if it be kept without food for six 
hours. It has been suggested, that 
the many dead Shrews which are 
found in the autumn owe their 
deaths to starvation, the worms 
having descended too deeply into 
the ground for them to follow, and 
the insects, being pinched with the 
cold, having concealed themselves 
in their wintry hiding-places. 
If this be the case, the curious phenomenon of dead Shrews lying uninjured on the 
ground will be readily cleared up, although it will not account for the singular fact that the 
dead animals are not carried off by cat, weasel, or owl. For this portion of the phenomenon 
another reason must be found ; which probably exists in the rank and powerful scent which 
saturates the body of the Shrew, and which is sufficiently unpleasant to deter cats and 
other animals from eating its flesh. Owls, however, will eat the Shrew, as has been found 
by examination of the pellets which are ejected by owls and other birds of prey, and 
which contain the skin, feathers, bones, and other indigestible portions of the creatures 
on which they prey. Twenty such pellets, or casts, as they are technically termed, 
were examined for the purpose of ascertaining their component parts, and no less than 
seven Shrew skeletons were discovered in the débris. Moles are said to be among the 
number of the Shrew’s enemies, and to make occasional havoc among the pretty little 
creatures. 
Sometimes the Shrews mutually kill each other, for they are most pugnacious little 
beings, and on small ground of quarrel enter into persevering and deadly combats ; 
which, if they took place between larger animals, would be terrifically grand, but in such 
little creatures appear almost ludicrous. They hold with their rows of bristling teeth 
with the pertinacity of bull-dogs, and, heedless of everything but the paroxysm of their 
blind fury, roll over each other on the ground, locked in spiteful embrace, and uttering a 
rapid suceession of shrill cries, which pierce the ears like needles of sound. It 1s a most 
ERD SHREW, OR SHREW-MOUSE.—Corsira vulgiris. 
