XXXIII. 



THE UNTAMABLE SHREW. 



Bv the hedgerow in the garden my terrier, 

 Freckle, has just come across two pugnacious 

 shrews, engaged in one of their sanguinary 

 battles. The high belligerent parties are 

 not exactly formidable to outsiders, it is 

 true, being not quite three inches long 

 apiece from snout to haunches, not counting 

 an inch and a half of tail, oddly square in 

 outline, to finish off their appearance. Yet 

 they are savage fighters, for all that, in 

 their intertribal quarrels. When shrew 

 meets shrew, then comes the tug of war. 

 It very seldom happens that they do not 

 join battle, and the victor in the fray 

 usually kills and eats his discomfited rival. 

 251 



