46 FAUNA OF SHROPSHIRE. 



Shrews are very pugnacious. This annual mortality is 

 a puzzle which has baffled all attempts at solution 

 hitherto, though it has been enquired into by many of 

 our best practical zoologists. The Shrew feeds on 

 insects and grubs of all kinds, but does not burrow after 

 them. It forms little " runs " in the grass and along 

 hedge-banks, and in such places its shrill squeaking cry 

 can often be heard when the animal is invisible. In 

 winter the Shrew hibernates in holes in the ground, 

 under trees, or in other sheltered places, and its sleep 

 is very profound. It makes a domed nest of grass, 

 leaves, etc., amongst grass or in a hedge-bank, and 

 usually has from five to seven young. Owls eat numbers 

 of Shrews, and cats kill but will not eat them. Few 

 animals are so pugnacious as Shrews, and if two are 

 confined in a box they always fight to the bitter end. 

 All Shrews have a peculiar and characteristic odour, due 

 to the secretion of a pair of glands on the body, and it 

 was this fact possibly which gave rise to the strange 

 superstition alluded to in the account of the " Shrew- 

 Ash " given by Gilbert White in his " Natural History 

 of Selborne." It was supposed that if a Shrew ran 

 across the limb of a cow or other animal it caused agony 

 in that particular part, and the pain could only be 

 relieved by the application of the leaves of a " Shrew- 

 Ash." This last was an ash tree that had had a hole 

 bored in its trunk into which a Shrew had been thrust 

 alive and the hole closed with a plug ! We may rejoice 

 that such a barbarous practice belongs to a bygone age. 

 In colour the Shrew varies a good deal, but is usually of 

 a reddish grey above, shading off to a light grey beneath. 

 The tail is very characteristic, being short and quad- 



