COMMON SHREW. 147 



belief amonf>- country people that the Shrew could not 

 cross a public way without incurring instant death. We 

 confess ourselves wholly unable to furnish any expla- 

 nation, having failed to discover any cause of death. 

 Amongst the many we have ourselves picked up and 

 examined, have been individuals of both sexes, and of 

 all ages, as shown by the worn or unworn condition of 

 the teeth, and the more or less naked state of the tail. 



For the following etymological observations on the 

 word Shrew, we are indebted to our late learned friend 

 Mr. Thompson, of the London Institution : — 



'^Scpeapa {Schreawa, Angl. Sax.). 'A Shrew Mouse; 

 which by biting cattle it venometh them that they die.' — 

 (Somner.) Lye adds the orthography of Schreova. The 

 etymon may possibly be found in Schreadan, to cut, or 

 Schrif, to censure bitterly ; or rather Scheorfian, to bite 

 or gnaw (all Angl. Sax.), and the ordinary notion is that 

 the biting disposition, expressed by the word Shrew, 

 comes from the name of the Shrew Mouse ; though Todd 

 prefers deriving it from the German ^chreive, to clamour, 

 or from the Saxon Schyrvan, to beguile. In the word 

 Erdshrew the prefix is clearly the Anglo-Saxon Boyd's, 

 Eorth, earth — designed to express the animal's habita- 

 tion." 



This species varies considerably in colours. It is 

 usually of a reddish mouse-colour above, greyish beneath ; 

 but the brown of the upper part is more or less red in 

 difl'erent individuals, in some approaching to black, in 

 others to reddish brown, or chestnut, and we have seen 

 one having all the upper parts cinnamon brown, with a 

 strong tinge of ash colour, and the grey colour of the 

 belly darker or lighter, and more or less tinged with 

 yellow. Snout much attenuated ; cars small, rounded, 

 scarcely visible above the fur, with two internal lobes, 



u 2 



