101 



shrews and found to my astonishment that he was a bloodthirsty and 

 formidable little beast of prey. He speedily killed and ate a partially 

 grown white-footed mouse which I put in the same cage with him. 

 (I think a full-grown mouse of this kind would be an overmatch for 

 a shrew.) I then put a small snake in with him. The shrew was 

 very active, but seemed nearly blind, and as he ran to and fro he never 

 seemed to be aware of the presence of anything living until he was close 

 to it, when he would instantly spring on it like a tiger. On this occasion 

 he attacked the litttle snake with great ferocity, and after an animated 

 struggle in which the snake whipped and rolled all around the cage, 

 throwing the shrew to and fro a dozen times, the latter killed and ate 

 the snake in triumph. Larger snakes frequently eat shrews, by the 

 way." (Scribner's Magazine, Vol. XLII, No. 4, p. 385, Oct. 1907.) 



Robert Elliott. "Short-tailed shrew, Blarina brevicauda (Say). 

 More mole-like in appearance than any member of the next genus. 

 (Sorex.) Besides destroying innumerable injurious insects in the 

 course of a year, this industrious mammal is a persistent enemy of 

 mice, following them into their burrows and killing them there. Com- 

 mon in Ontario. 



"***** That the distinction between a shrew and a 

 mouse is not more clearly known is a decided misfortune to both the 

 farmer and the shrew. Meadow mice feed on the farmer's crops and 

 are generally treated as they truly are that is, unmitigated pests. 

 Shrews feed on insects and (in the case of one species, at least) on 

 those very mice the farmer so cordially dislikes. Yet to the 

 average farmer every little furry creature that runs through his 

 fields is merely a mouse, nay, even worse than that, if any distinction 

 is made at all, it is usually against the poor little 'shrew-mouse' an 

 unreasonable prejudice allied to superstition." (Twenty-seventh An- 

 nual Report, Entomological Society of Ontario, pp. 19, 20, 1896.) 



A. Franklin Shull. " * * * * Two articles of food of Blarina 

 have been so far mentioned, namely, snails and voles. (Meadow mice) 

 * * * * The only quantitative evidence obtained in the field in 

 regard to the vole diet was found at the nest mentioned above as 

 having been made exclusively of the hair of this animal. Beside 

 this nest, thrust into the loose peat, were the bodies of two freshly 

 killed meadow voles and that of a third half eaten. In addition to 

 those there were several handfuls of hair in which were mixed legs 

 and tails enough for about twenty voles. I could not know how long 

 it had taken to accumulate this mass. The hair was still moist but 

 was packed so close that moisture would be retained a long time even 

 in the dry soil in which the nest was located. 



