109 

 FOOD HABITS. 



Insects. I have never given a hungry shrew flesh of any 

 kind that it would not eat. Insects of all sorts are devoured by 

 them when in captivity and there is no good reason for believ- 

 ing that any of them would be refused by shrews when at large. 

 A great per cent, of the common injurious insects of the orch- 

 ard, farm and garden, as well as many beneficial species, spend 

 normally one or more stages of their existence in just such 

 places as the shrew selects for its hunting-ground. A list of 

 the injurious species would include such well-known pests as 

 grasshoppers, seventeen-year locusts, cut-worms, wire-worms, 

 corn ear- worms, canker-worms, ''rose-bugs," white-grubs, May- 

 beetles, cucumber-beetles, plum-curculios, grape-curculios, grape- 

 root-worms, potato-beetles, chestnut-worms, and many others, 

 and of the beneficial insects such species as ground-beetles, tiger- 

 ' beetles, certain species of parasitic hymenoptera, diptera, etc. 

 No doubt examples of all these are eaten with more or less 

 frequency by shrews. 



The following table shows something of the feeding capacity 

 of the shrews : 



FOOD CONSUMED BY SHORT-TAILED SHREW. B. brevicaudal 



Date. 



1907. Articles Eaten. Weight. 



July 22, (24 hrs.) 1 young rat, 1 young indigo bird Not recorded 



July 23, (24 hrs.) 1 young rat, 111 rose chafers, M. su'b- 



spinosus . . Not recorded 



July 24, (24 hrs.) 1 young rat, 8 peach-tree borers, 1 cut 



worm, 1 butterfly Not recorded 



July 25, (24 hrs.) 1 large beetle, Pelidnota punctata, 



1 bumble-bee, 2 small fish Not recorded 



Oct. 19-22, (64 hrs.) 2 shrews, 28 large grasshoppers, 6 



small white-grubs, piece of gray squirrel 57 grams 



Oct. 23, (24 hrs.) 38 large white-grubs, (Allorhina and 



Lachnosterna) 37 grams 



Oct. 24, (24 hrs.) 119 chestnut-worms, (Balaninus) 7 grams 



Oct. 25, (24 hrs.) 117 chestnut-worms (Balaninus) 7 grams 



Oct. 26, (24 hrs.) 16 large white-grubs, (Allorhina) 21 grams 



