LECT. VI.] RED TEETH OF THE SHREW. 157 



The hungry, impatient Cat, who mistakes a Shrew 

 for a Mouse, and then leaves her musky prey untasted, 

 would starve upon that which fattens the Mole, the 

 Shrew, and the Bat. The last of these kinds hawks for 

 his small prey ; but the Shrew, with his delicate 

 proboscis, his sharp eyes, and his quick ears, knows where 

 small beetles most do congregate. These he crunches 

 and munches with exquisite teeth, the cusps or points 

 of which are of a deep ferruginous red colour ; more 

 beautiful, strange to say, because they are thus stained. 



The Power that made the beetle strong in his polished 

 and enamelled armour, made also the teeth of the Shrew 

 most fit instruments for crushing that armour in which 

 the beetle trusts. It is pleasanter to look upon this vacil- 

 lation, so to speak, of beneficent purpose, from the stand- 

 point of a Darwin, than from the standpoint of a Paley ; 

 there is much that is painfully mysterious in the whole 

 matter, and we only see it in a partial view. Anyhow, 

 the human Vertebrate, who suffers from many kinds of 

 hunger, is not better fitted for his mode of life than the 

 Shrew for his ; the latter is a perfect little creature, and 

 well worthy the attention of the biologist. 



We have three native forms of this widely-distributed 

 family of the Insectivora, a family which has representa- 

 tives in many parts of the old world, and in the northern 

 part of the new. 



The commonest kind (Sorex vulgaris) is intermediate in 

 size between the other two ; the largest is the Water Shrew 



