WILD CREATURES OF GARDEN AND HEDGEROW 



and fro. The sound was not only very shrill, 

 but, unless one saw the shrew that was making 

 it, it was almost impossible to tell from whence 

 it came, whether before, behind, or from the 

 side of you. 



Watching this colony made me very anxious 

 to know more about these queer little creatures, 

 but the first two or three that I caught simply 

 raced round and round the cage until tired out 

 and then died. Two or three hours saw the 

 end. It seemed so cruel that I said I would 

 never try again, but one day a man who was 

 cutting some long grass in the garden came 

 across a shrew and somehow or other managed 

 to catch it. When I saw the tiny creature I 

 decided to have one more try, though afraid 

 that the wee thing must have been pinched 

 in the man's large rough hand. I dropped it 

 into a glass-sided fern-case, in which I kept 

 some frogs, a blindworm, and two or three 

 kinds of toads. The shrew hesitated for a 

 moment, letting me have a good look at it. 

 It was a full-grown young one, being clad in 

 the light brown coat which distinguishes the 

 shrews of the year from those that have lived 

 through the winter. The latter are much 

 darker and have almost bare tails. It is a 



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