COMMON SHREW. 125 



although they kill, will not eat it. A foolish notion 

 is prevalent among country-people, that should a 

 Shrew run over the leg of a cow or horse while 

 reposing among the grass, it causes lameness, and 

 for this reason it is invariably killed when an op- 

 portunity occurs; whereas, being perfectly harmless, 

 and living exclusively on insects, it rather merits 

 protection. It forms a bulky nest of grass, cover- 

 ing it above, and placing it either in a sheltered 

 place on the surface, among thick herbage, or in a 

 hole in a bank ; and the number of its young varies 

 from five to seven. In summer an annual mortality 

 takes place among them, and they are then frequent- 

 ly found dead in the woods without any external 

 appearance of inj ury. If equally impatient of hunger 

 with the Mole, perhaps it may be caused by drought, 

 which destroys the worms in the places frequented by 

 them, and induces the insects to betake themselves to 

 moister localities. They are extremely pugnacious, 

 and Mr Bell states, that if two " be confined in a 

 box together, a very short time elapses before the 

 weaker is killed and partly devoured." When at 

 rest, this species, like the others, keeps its body much 

 contracted, the spine being greatly arched, so that 

 it appears extremely short, with the head dispropor- 

 tionately large. 



