SHREW. 



681 



have indeed two modes of life in different members of 

 the genus, some living in dry places, and some by the 

 banks of streams and pools, and the margins of foun- 

 tains ; but they all live in comparative concealment, 

 and in the earth rather than on it. They generally 

 live in holes, but some get into hay stacks and other 

 collections of dry vegetables, which they render very 

 unpleasant by the odour which they give out. Cats 

 and dogs are prone enough to kill shrews, but neither 

 the one nor the other will eat them, probably on ac- 

 count of their rank and disagreeable odour. As is 

 the Citse with most animals that have something dis- 

 agreeable about them, and are but little known, the 

 shrews have been supposed to be poisonous, and the 

 common one stands accused of inflictingserious diseases 

 on domestic animals by its bite ; but there is not the 

 least truth in the accusation ; and, unless in the case 

 of the insects and larvae on which they feed, and in 

 the consumption of which the}' in all probability 

 perform a very important service, the shrews are 

 among the most harmless of the mammalia. Even 

 when we leave out a number of other animals which 

 have been called shrews, the species are rather nu- 

 merous, and it is easy to make more than there are 

 in reality, as some of them are subject to much 

 variation in colours. We can afford room for a 

 very short notice of the most remarkable only. 



COMMON SHIIEW (S. arancus'}. This is found in 

 almost all parts of Europe, but is rarely seen in 

 proportion to its numbers. Its general colour is 

 greyish-brown, more or less reddish on the upper 

 part, and ash-coloured on the under, the colours 

 melting gradually into each other on the flanks. 

 Colour, however, is hardly a proper foundation for 

 the description of it, as some are brown, some yel- 

 lowish, and some white. It is, however, only the 

 points of the hairs, generally speaking, that have 

 these diversities of colour, excepting in the white 

 ones, which are true albinoes, and have the whole 

 length white ; for the greater part of the length of the 

 hairs is generally bluish-grey over the whole bodv. 

 Around the muzzle the colour is a little brighter than 

 on the rest of the body, and a small portion of the 

 tail is usually of a bright brown colour ; the ears are 

 naked, large, and rounded, and conspicuous through 

 the fur on the head, though there, as well as on the 

 body, it is long and close ; the teeth are conspicuous, 

 and of a pure white colour ; the mustachioesare verv 

 long, and they are often continued from the angle of 

 the gape to the occiput ; the tail is nearly round, 

 covered with short hair, and about an inch and a half 

 in length, which is nearly one-third of the whole 

 length of the animal. The young differ but little in 

 appearance from the old. The common shrew is not 

 rare in most parts of Europe. In the summer it is 

 found in woods and copses, and under hedge rows ; 

 but in winter it often takes up its habitation in stables, 

 farm-yards, and heaps of manure, in neither of which 

 places it does good or harm, at least in so far as is 

 known. 



TUSCAN SHREW (,S'. Etruscus). This is the 

 smallest of all the European species, and rather a 

 handsome one in its appearance, at least in its 

 colours. It is only about an inch and three quarters 

 in length from the point of the muzzle to the origin 

 of the tail, whereas the common one is about three 

 inches in the same extent. Its colour is brownish on 

 the upper part and greyish on the under, the fur 

 being particularly bright and shining. It is usually 



found lurking under the tangled roots of trees, or in 

 the hollows of decayed ones, though it often burrows 

 in dunghills during the winter, probably because it 

 finds food more abundant there than in more cleanly 

 places. 



THE PRETTY SHREW (.S. pulchellus) is an Asiatic 

 species, described as being found on the sandy and 

 half-desert tracts of the interior. It is one of the 

 very smallest members of the genus, being less than 

 the Tuscan which was last mentioned, and little 

 more than an inch and a half in length in the head 

 and body, and the tail is about three quarters of an 

 inch ; the flanks are of the most snowy whiteness ; 

 the top of the head is bright grey, which extends on 

 the back in a deeper tint, and forms a parallelogram, 

 bounded laterally and backwards by the pure white, 

 in the middle of which parallelogram there is a single 

 white spot ; the ears slate-colour ; the muzzle is long 

 and very pointed. This prettily marked species in- 

 habits the dry sandy districts, and has been observed 

 both in central Asia and in the north of Germany. 



THE MARKED SHREW (S. pertonatui) is an Ame- 

 rican species, about the same size as the common 

 shrew, and not very different from it in colour. The 

 breast and the under parts are ash-colour, and the 

 feet are reddish ; the hair on the head and the tail 

 is very long, and on the former it completely conceals 

 the ears ; the head and body are about two inches 

 long, and the tail is about one inch. There is 

 another North American species, mentioned under 

 the name of the small shrew, which resembles the 

 present one in most particulars except colour and 

 size, and, from what is remarked of the common 

 shrew, these can hardly be admitted as specific 

 distinctions. It is probable that, in a wild country 

 like America, there are many species or varieties of 

 shrews, but there is not much of interest in their 

 individual histories. 



THE SHORT-TAILED SHREW (S. Irev'icaudatus] is 

 another American species or variety. It is dark 

 lead-colour on the upper part, and the same colour, 

 lighter in the tint, on the under ; the teeth are thirty 

 in number, of a brown colour in the greater part of 

 their length, but with the crowns black ; the feet are 

 white, with the three middle toes of nearly the same 

 length, and the two lateral ones much shorter ; the 

 tail is short, rather thickened in the middle of its 

 length, and very soft and velvety in its covering. It 

 is rather a large species, being about three inches 

 and a half in length, with the tail only one inch. 



THE SQUARE-TAILED SHREW (S. tetrctgomerns) is 

 a European species, nearly of the same size as the 

 common shrew, hut distinguished from all the others 

 by the form of the tail, which is four-cornered, or 

 nearly square in the section, the angles of which are 

 very conspicuous ; there is a sort of furrow along 

 the under side, and the organ terminates in a very 

 fine point ; the ears are much shorter than those of 

 the common shrew, but they are not completely 

 covered by the fur ; the colour is blackish-brown on 

 the upper part, and greyish-ash on the under. It has 

 been most carefully noticed in France ; but, as its 

 habits and haunts are the same as those of the com- 

 mon shrew, it is probably only an accidental variety 

 of that. Gardens and farm-yards are the places in 

 which it is usually found. 



THE FLAT-TAILED SHREW (S. conslrictus) is another 

 European species or variety, of nearly the same size 

 and habits as the common shrew. The characters 



