WILD CREATURES OF GARDEN AND HEDGEROW 



here they do no end of good by the amount 

 of insects that they eat. To keep up their 

 numbers they have large families, six, seven, or 

 even more young ones being born at a time. 

 The nurseries that I have found have been 

 under logs, in snug crevices, in banks, and other 

 private corners where the mother shrew could 

 collect a nest of grass and leaves and rear her 

 babies without interference by other creatures. 

 The little ones come into the world as wee, 

 naked, blind, pink morsels, but they grow very 

 quickly and their eyes open ; they develop a 

 coat, and are soon able to run about and look 

 after themselves. A second family is by that 

 time engaging the mother's attention, and each 

 pair of shrews probably bring up in the course 

 of a season at least a dozen young ones, before, 

 worn out by all their labours, they creep out 

 from their holes and hidden highways to die in 

 the open. Of those dozen young ones the odds 

 are that but two will live until the next year, 

 to rear families in their turn and launch them 

 into the world. Owls, hawks, cats, and foxes 

 take their toll of the shrews that live on land ; 

 that river pirate the pike, even trout at times, 

 and the keen-eyed heron take their toll of the 

 water shrews ; so both in the hedgerow and the 



