194 ECONOMIC MAMMALOGY 



up much resistance, shrews undoubtedly kill and eat mice whenever 

 the rodents are encountered under circumstances which allow the shrew 

 to close in a rough-and-tumble fight. Mice put into cages with shrews 

 are dispatched with a celerity that indicates this is by no means a new 

 experience for the shrew." 21 While shrews will eat white-footed and 

 field mice in traps, it is said that they will not eat trapped weasels ; but, 

 on the other hand, "it is well known that most animals, both wild and 

 domestic, will not eat the short-tailed shrew" (Blarina brevicauda) , 22 

 Nevertheless, two weasel stomachs contained remains of this shrew and 

 weasels have often been seen carrying dead shrews. 23 



"On the whole, shrews are among the most beneficial mammals," 

 in proportion to their size and numbers, "of considerable economic value 

 in holding down certain pests of agriculture;" the stomachs of Sorex 

 examined containing "Hymenoptera, Coleoptera, Diptera, caterpillars, 

 crickets, spiders, hair and flesh of shrews and mice, moss, seeds and 

 other vegetable material," and they eat rolled oats used for bait in traps, 

 and earthworms; water shrews (subgenus Neosorcx) eat also small 

 fish and perhaps fish eggs, but are not common enough to do much harm 

 in fish ponds and trout streams ; 35 per cent of the contents of one marsh 

 shrew (subgenus Atophyrax) stomach was snails, but otherwise it did 

 not differ much from other shrews; and "nothing is known of the food 

 of the members of the genus Microsore.v" (the pigmy shrews). 24 



"While many of our small mammals must be considered enemies 

 and destroyed in every possible way, fortunately some, as the shrews, 

 may be classed as wholly beneficial and their presence welcomed on the 

 farm," according to Bailey, who discusses the North Dakota species. 25 

 Hayden masked shrew (Sorex cinereus haydeni) "The principal part 

 of their food, as shown by the stomach contents, consists of insects, 

 earthworms and the small animal life found over the surface of the 

 ground." Short-tailed shrew (Blarina brevicauda brevicauda) Food 

 about the same as the preceding, including mollusks. Water shrew 



21 Anthony, Field book of North American mammals, p. 34, 1928. Plummer, Amer. 

 Journ. Sci, XLVI, 237-241, 1844. Merriam, Mammals of the Adirondacks, 1884. Shull, 

 Amer. Nat., XLI, 495-522, 1907. Hamilton, Journ. Mammalogy, xi, 27-33, IQ30. Bab- 

 cock, Science, XL, 526-553, 1914. Hahn, 33rd Ann. Kept. Indiana Dept. Geol. and 

 Nat. Res., p. 601, 1908 (1909). 



22 Kirk, Shrews and weasels, Journ. Mammalogy, n, in, 1921. 



23 Hamilton, Weasels eat shrews, Journ. Mammalogy, ix, 249, 1928 ; citing Adams, 

 Mem. and Proc. Manchester Lit. and Phil. Soc., LIV, No. 10, p. 2, 1910. 



24 Jackson, A taxonomic review of the long-tailed shrews, U. S. Biol. Survey, 

 N. Amer. Fauna, No. 51, pp. 10-11, 1928. 



25 Bailey, A biological survey of North Dakota, U. S. Biol. Surv., N. Amer. 

 Fauna, No. 49, pp. 200-207, 1926. See Babcock, Some observations on the food habits 

 of the short-tailed shrew (Blarina brevicauda, Science, XL, 526-530, 1914, for sum- 

 mary of literature. 



