100 



one is catalogued as the mole shrew, and is found almost everywhere 

 in great numbers. ***** They are obstinate, savage little 

 brutes, but are unquestionably of immense service to the farmers, 

 spending their lives in a most vigorous pursuit of insects of all kinds. 



" * * * * Their keen noses enable them to scent meat at 

 a considerable distance, and when they h.ave succeeded in finding any 

 that may have been left by larger hunters, they fall upon it raven- 

 ously, tearing at it and devouring it with all the ferocity of wolves. 



"One that I caught in a trap had already, when I found it, dis- 

 posed of the raw meat, which had served as bait, and when confined 

 in a cage immediately seized upon whatever meat was offered it, 

 whether raw or cooked, without discriminating between kinds. Beef, 

 pork and cold chicken all went the same way, while the fury of his 

 appetite was being appeased. Both in eating and drinking the pro- 

 jecting taper-like nose or trunk was turned up in order to enable 

 him to use his mouth more freely, for a shrew's mouth opens from 

 beneath almost like that of a shark. The sensitive trunk is doubtless 

 of service in poking about beneath the leaves and in soft earth after 

 worms, of which the mole shrew is particularly fond. 



"Many of them take up their winter quarters in cellars where they 

 forage around in dusky corners for worms and insects, or help them- 

 selves to whatever meat is left within their reach. Their holes are dug 

 in the surrounding soil and are probably being multiplied and extended 

 throughout the winter in search of worms. 



"***** None of the shrews appear to hibernate, and 

 whether the mole shrew ever passes the winter in burrowing about 

 in the ground beneath the frost, or not, is hard to determine. The 

 genuine moles are believed to occupy themselves in this manner all 

 winter long and, of course, it is quite possible that the mole shrew 

 may do likewise, but I have my doubts about it. 



"At all events, numbers of them are out on the surface of the 

 snow, even in the very coldest weather, when the ground beneath is 

 like a stone. Part of their food at such times is obtained by gleaning 

 after the owls and foxes and other hunters of the woodland. If they 

 depended on this alone most of them would starve long before spring, 

 as even in warm weather they require food oftener than almost any 

 other creature of their size, and though insects in small numbers are 

 always to be found on the snow, these would hardly suffice to appease 

 a mole shrew's hunger. I believe that they get the greater part of 

 their food at this season by burrowing about among the dead leaves 

 beneath the snow in the forests, gathering the dormant insects that 

 habitually pass the winter in such places." (American Animals, pp. 

 180-182. 1902.) 



Theodore Roosevelt. "When a boy I captured one of these mole- 



