SHREWS. 79 



charming and quaint chronicler observes : " At the south 

 corner of the plestor, or area, near the church, there stood, 

 about twenty years ago a very old, grotesque, hollow pollard 

 ash, which for ages had been looked upon with no small 

 veneration as a Shrew-ash. Now a Shrew-ash is one whose 

 twigs or branches, when applied to the limbs of cattle, will 

 immediately relieve the pains which a beast suffers from the 

 running of a Shrew-Mouse over the part afflicted ; for it is 

 supposed that a Shrew-Mouse is of so baneful and deleterious 

 a nature, that wherever it creeps over a beast, be it Horse, Cow, 

 or Sheep, the suffering animal is afflicted with cruel anguish, 

 and threatened with the loss 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 deep 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." One touch from the twig 

 of such an ash was sufficient to restore an afflicted animal to 

 health. 



II. THE LESSER SHREW. SOREX MINUTUS. 



Sorex minutus, Linn., Syst. Nat. ed. 12 vol. i. p. 73 (1766). 

 Sorex pygmtzus, Pallas, Zoog. Rosso-Asiat. vol. i. p. 134 



(1831); Bell, British Quadrupeds 2nd ed. p. i48a 



(1874). 

 Sorex rusticus, Jenyns, Ann. Nat. Hist. 1838 p. 417. 



Characters. Size smaller than that of the last species, from 

 which it may be distinguished by the following characters : The 

 third upper incisor is not longer than the canine,* and by the 

 proportionately shorter fore-arm and foot. Tail usually shorter 



* It should be noted that the Shrews are now considered to differ from 

 other placental Mammals in having four pairs of upper incisors, the outer- 

 most being the one here reckoned as the canine. 



