140 THE SHREW. 



merit for the habits of the animal, but impediments 

 to extended vision ; 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 men- 

 tioned by Pennant, afford the best ready distinc- 

 tion- of this mouse from the common shrew. Both 

 our species of sorex seem to feed by preference on 

 insects and worms ; and thus, like the mole, their 

 flesh is rank and offensive to most creatures, which 

 reject them as food. The common shrew, in spring 

 and summer, is ordinarily in motion even during 

 the day, from sexual attachment, which occasions 

 the destruction of numbers by cats, and other 

 prowling animals; and thus we find them strewed 

 in our paths, by gateways, and in our garden walks, 

 dropped by these animals in their progress. It was 

 once thought that some periodical disease occa- 

 sioned this mortality of the species \ but I think 

 we may now conclude that violence alone is the 

 cause of their destruction in these instances. The 

 bite of this creature was considered by the ancients 

 as peculiarly noxious, even to horses and large 

 cattle; and variety of the most extraordinary reme- 

 dies for the wound, and preventives against it, are 

 mentioned by Pliny and others. The prejudices 

 of antiquity, long as they usually are in keeping 

 possession of the mind, have not been remembered 

 by us ; and we only know the hardy shrew now as 

 a perfectly harmless animal, though we still retain 

 a name for it expressive of something malignant and 

 spiteful. 



