WILD CREATURES OF GARDEN AND HEDGEROW 



vegetarian food, whence they are called 

 ' Rodents ' ; but the shrews live on insects, 

 their teeth are quite different, they are for 

 biting and tearing, not for gnawing, and they 

 are called ' Insectivores.' 



There are three different kinds of shrews in 

 this country the common shrew, the water 

 shrew, and the pigmy or lesser shrew. The 

 first well deserves its name, for it is very very 

 common indeed. Wherever there is long grass 

 or other undergrowth, the shrews will have 

 their paths and tunnels, along which they 

 race at a surprising pace at all hours of the day 

 and night, for, unlike so many wild creatures, 

 they have no preference for the dark. If there is 

 a wild or rubbishy corner in your garden, where 

 the grass and nettles grow rankly, and you 

 watch and wait there quietly for a few moments, 

 you will be certain to hear the shrill squeaking 

 of these little creatures, and see sooner or later 

 a small grey-brown shape darting in and out 

 between the stems. It is a shrew foraging 

 for food, sniffing here and there with its long 

 keen snout, nosing a beetle from its hiding- 

 place behind a leaf, a spider from its refuge 

 between some grass blades, grabbing a small 

 worm before it can withdraw into the ground, 



72 



