-papular JDtrtuwarn nf ftntmatrt Mature. 615 



ally visiting the sea-coasts. They are not 

 unfrequent in France, and ore sometimes 

 also met with in .England, but they are by 

 no means common. They are of a wild, 

 shy, and solitary disposition. The female 

 makes her nest on the ground, with withered 

 grass, and lays ten or twelve rust-coloured 

 eggs. Their food consists of worms and the 

 larva} of insects. 



SHREW. (Sarex araneus.) The Shrew 

 is a small insectivorous animal, covered with 

 short velvety fur, and having much of the 

 general form and asi>ect of the Mouse. It 

 may, however, be easily distinguished from 

 the mouse by its long, taper, cartilaginous 

 snout ; the eyes, too, are very minute, and 

 almost hidden in the surrounding hairs ; and 

 the ears are round and close. The Shrew is 

 usually of a reddish mouse colour above, 

 grayish beneath, and sometimes tinged with 

 yellow. The whole structure of this animal 

 seems especially adapted to facilitate his 

 progress under the earth ; though it is to be 

 observed that he is not only able to make 

 his way rapidly under ground, but can run 

 quite fast when on the surface. The total 

 length, from the point of the snout to the 

 beginning of the tail is under five inches, 

 and the tail is one inch long. The Shrew 

 frequents dry situations, feeding upon in- 

 sects, worms, and grubs for the pursuit of 

 which its thin pointed snout is admirably 

 fitted, either among the closest herbage, or 

 under the surface of the soil. The body 



exhales a rank musky odour, which renders 

 them distasteful to cats, though they will 

 readily kill them ; but its flesh does not seem j 

 to be disliked by weasels, hawks, and owls, ' 

 which destroy these little nocturnal insecti- | 

 vora in great n umbers. They are common in 

 hedge-rows, thickets, gardens, &c.; and make 

 long superficial burrows in banks, among the 

 roots of trees and brushwood. These animals 

 show much of the pugnacity and voracious- 

 ness of the Mole. The female makes a nest 

 of soft herbage, in any hole of a bank, &c., 

 covered over at the top, and entered at the 

 side ; and she brings forth in the spring from 

 live to seven young ones. 



Among the superstitions of olden times 

 was one, that the Shrew Mouse had power ! 

 of inflicting serious injury upon cattle by the ! 

 mere contact of its body. That entertaining 

 naturalist Gilbert White, in his History of I 

 Selborne, thus alludes to it and its supposed j 

 remedy. " At the south corner of the plestor, I 

 or area, near the church, there stood, about ! 

 twenty years ago, a very old, grotesque, I 

 pollard-ash, which for ages had been looked j 

 upon with no small veneration as a Shrew- 



n-h. Now, a Shrew-ash is an ash whose 

 twigs or branches, when applied to the limbs 

 of cattle, will immediately relieve the pains 

 which a beast sutlers from the running of a 

 Shrew Mouse over the part affected ; for it 

 is supposed that a Shrew Mouse is of so 

 Imnrtnl and deleterious a nature, that whcre- 

 ever it creeps over a beast, be it horse, cow, 

 or ^ieep, the suffering animal is afflicted 

 with criu I anguish, and threatened with the 

 loss of the use of the limb. Against this 

 accident, to which they were continually 

 liable, our provident forefathers always kept 

 a Shrew-ash at hand, which, when once 

 medicated, would maintain its virtue for 

 ever. A Shrew-ash was made thus : into the 

 body of the tree a hole was bored with an 

 auger, and a poor devoted Shrew Mouse was 

 thrust in alive, and plugged in, no doubt 

 with several quaint incantations long since 

 forgotten 1 " 



There are two other British species, the 

 Water Shrew and the Oared Shrew, the 

 habits of both of which are aquatic, as their 

 names import. Their burrows are formed in 

 the banks of rivers, and their food consists of 

 aquatic insectsand larva-, in pursuit of which 

 they dive with great facility. The WATKK- 

 Sm:K\v (Sorejc fodient) possesses the same 

 general conformation as the Common Shrew 

 a body equally slender ; a snout nearly as 

 thin and pointed ; and its fur has the same 

 soft and silky kind of texture. Its feet are 

 rather broad and formed for swimming, 

 having a lash of stiff white hairs on the edge 

 of the toes ; the tail rather slender, com- 

 pressed at the tip, and fringed with stiff hairs 

 beneath. The head, back, and flanks, a rich 

 brownish black ; the under parts nearly 

 pure white. The author of the "Journal of 

 a Naturalist " thus speaks of these pretty 

 little animals : " It is very amusing to ob- 

 serve the actions of these creatures, all life 

 and animation in an element they could not 

 be thought any way calculated for enjoying; 

 but they swim admirably, frolicking over 

 the floating leaves of the pondweed, and up 

 the foliage of the flags, which, bending with 

 their weight, will at times souse them in the 

 pool, and away they scramble to another, 

 searching apparently for the insects that 

 frequent such places, and feeding on drowned 

 moths and similar insects. They run along 

 the margin of the water, rooting amid the 

 leaves and mud with their long noses for 

 food, like little ducks, with great earnestness 

 and perseverance. Their power of vision 

 seems limited 'to a confined circumference. 

 The smallness of their eyes, and the growth 

 of fur about them, are convenient for the 

 habits of the animal, but impediments to ex- 

 tended vision j so that, with caution, we can 

 approach them in their gambols, and observe 

 all their actions. The general blackness of 

 the body, and the triangular spot beneath 

 the tail, as mentioned by Pennant, afford 

 the best ready distinction of this mouse from 

 the Common Shrew." " Its swimming," says 

 Mr. Bell, " is principally effected by the al- 

 ternate action of its hinder feet, which pro- 

 duces an unequal or wriggling motion : it 

 makes its way, however, with great velocity; 

 and as it swims rather superficially, with 



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