Common Shrew 
or wood piles, but knowing their choice of food and the places 
they inhabit and their quaint way of getting about, it is easy 
to imagine them stalking crickets and beetles in the shade of 
the humbler growth of the forest. No doubt they get lots of 
fun and breathless excitement and suspense before certain of the 
larger and more active insects are subdued. With the exception 
of some of the weasels they are perhaps the most hot blooded, 
energetic, excitable little beasts alive. 
Dr. Merriam, speaking of their voracious habits, states that he 
once confined three of these restless little beasts under an ordinary 
tumbler. ‘‘ Almost immediately they commenced fighting, and in 
a few minutes one was slaughtered and eaten by the other two. 
Before night one of them killed and ate its only surviving com- 
panion, and its abdomen was much distended by the meal. 
Hence in less than eight hours one of these tiny wild beasts 
had attacked, overcome, and ravenously consumed two of its 
own species, each as large and heavy as itself.” Of the rapid 
progress of the shrew when at large, he says, ‘‘if one is sitting 
quietly in the woods it sometimes happens that a_ slight rust- 
ling reaches the ear. There is no wind but the eye rests upon 
a fallen leaf that seems to move. Presently another stirs and 
perhaps a third turns completely over. Then something evan- 
escent, like the shadow of an embryonic mouse, appears and 
vanishes before the retina can catch its perfect image 
Its ceaseless activity, and the rapidity with which it darts from 
place to place is truly astonishing, and rarely permits the observer 
a correct impression of its form.” 
I have never seen a live marsh-shrew though | have hunted 
and set traps for them along various little brooks and_ similar 
moist and watery places. It would appear that they occupy 
much the same position among the shrews that minks and otters 
hold in the weasel tribe, swimming about or diving beneath the 
surface for minnows or water beetles, or racing along the margin 
to stop here and there to overturn wet leaves or dig in the 
mud for worms. 
Tadpoles and caddis worms and the multitudinous variety of 
wriggling larve that inhabit the bottoms of little brooks must 
furnish them with sufficient food at all seasons. In all likelihood 
they also make frequent excursions to higher and drier ground 
as the whim seizes them. 
18§ 
