146 SORICID^E. 



looked upon with no small veneration as a Shrew-ash. 

 Now, a Shrew-ash is an ash whose twigs or branches, 

 when applied to the limbs of cattle, will immediately re- 

 lieve the pains which a beast suffers from the running of 

 a Shrew Mouse over the part aifected ; 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 use of the 

 limb. Against this accident, to which they were con- 

 tinually 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." * Another 

 method of cure was to make the person or animal pass 

 through the arch of a bramble, both ends of which were 

 rooted and growing. 



The female Shrew brings forth in the spring from five 

 to seven young ones. The nest, which consists of soft 

 herbage, is made in any hole or depression on the ground, 

 or in a bank : it is covered over at the top, and is entered 

 at the side. The increase of the species which such a 

 numerous progeny would be calculated to produce, is 

 counterbalanced, not only by the destruction which takes 

 place amongst them through the agency of other animals, 

 as Moles, Weasels, and Owls, but by a very general 

 mortality which prevails early in autumn, the cause of 

 which does not appear to be understood. So many may 

 be found at that season lying dead in footways, or on 

 other bare ground near their haunts, as to have led to the 

 * White's Selborne, pt. II. xxviii. 



