82 My Wood. 



insects, and are apt at turning over little stones, &c., 

 to find the tiny crustaceans underneath. Some say they 

 do this nimbly under the water at the bottom, and 

 assert that they have seen them do so, a privilege, I 

 must confess, that I have not enjoyed, though I quite 

 believe it to be accurate. Very possibly the water-voles 

 are often blamed for their depredations on the eggs of 

 fish. The superstitions about the shrews, both land 

 and water-shrews, are very numerous : one of them 

 was that if a cow had been touched or run over by a 

 shrew it was sure to die, and the only means to pre- 

 vent this was to bury a living shrew in a hole in the 

 ash-tree, and then a twig from that tree, or even a few 

 leaves from it, was held to work a cure. 



The water-shrews are perhaps the most playful of 

 all our small animals. Old and young in the warm 

 afternoons turn out, and describe the funniest circles, 

 chasing each other, turning over each other, and in- 

 dulging in half-a-hundred of the maddest pranks. 

 The young ones are not by any means the foremost in 

 these romps. They seem thoroughly to believe in the 

 maxim that " all work and no play makes Jack a dull 

 boy." They are certainly not dull. They even carry 

 their gambols into the water, and will sometimes have 

 the nicest races, or it may be games of " touch," when 

 the young ones will suddenly duck and disappear, only 

 to be followed by the pursuers, and when they come 

 to the surface again the game is renewed only those 

 who had been pursued in the former bout are now the 

 pursuers. But i^ever you are privileged to witness 

 this unique and pretty sight, be sure you do not stir, 

 or even raise a hand, or in an instant all will have dis- 

 appeared in the twinkling of an eye, as though the 

 earth had literally swallowed them up; for, as has been 



