THE JUMPING SHREW 



Failing insects, they may be kept in health and 

 strength on a diet of mincemeat. 



The Jumping Shrew may be regarded as one of 

 the keepers of the sparse vegetation in those dis- 

 tricts where the rainfall is limited. In these more 

 or less arid parts, bird life is scarce. Insectivorous 

 birds keep the" armies of insects in check ; and in 

 the absence of these formidable enemies, the insects 

 increase at an alarmingly rapid rate, and soon 

 become a plague to mankind. However, owing to 

 the comparative dryness of the soil, absence of 

 surface water, and the sparse vegetation in the 

 midlands of the Cape Province and various other 

 parts of South Africa, insects do not increase at a 

 rapid rate, and consequently their enemies are 

 comparatively few, and the Jumping Shrew is one 

 of them. 



Some of the Jumping Shrews specially favour the 

 dryer portions of South Africa on the west, from 

 the Cape up through Namaqualand, Bechuanaland, 

 South- West Africa, and right away to Algeria. 

 These desert-loving species are usually found in 

 and about thin patches of brushwood, where they 

 excavate burrows into which they retreat on the 

 appearance of their enemies the Hawk, Meercat, 

 Mungoose and Fox. 



If the observer sits perfectly quiet and carefully 

 watches he will, after a time, see a portion of the 

 trunk-like snout thrust out of a hole, and by its 

 sensitive movements he is aware the Shrew is em- 



