THE SHREWS 29 



despise slugs, snails, frogs, small birds, and even its own offspring or its neigh- 

 bour's ! It is a very thirsty creature, and can swim well, as may be guessed 

 from its broad " hands." The mole is undoubtedly useful, not only in ridding 

 the land of many of the larval pests of the farmer, but also in bringing up 

 to the surface the virgin soil of its tunnels : it does not always deserve the 

 fate which it meets at the hand of the farmer and gamekeeper. Its sense of 

 smell is very acute the female will almost always desert her young if they 

 have been handled and the mole-catcher has to take special precautions 

 not to leave the scent of human hands upon his traps. The Latin name for the 

 Common Mole is Tatya europcea. 



3. The Shrews, which are distant cousins of the Mole, are represented in 

 Britain by two species the Common (Sorex vulgaris) and the Pygmy or Lesser 

 Shrew (S. minutus). 



The Common Shrew is reddish grey in colour, with a longish snout, sharp 

 pointed, and a tail that looks as if it had been cut short. It is noteworthy as 

 possessing a pair of glands which secrete a very offensive fluid, the consequence 

 being that no cat or other carnivore will eat it. Its dead body is often found 

 lying on paths or roads, and country people have a belief that a shrew can- 

 not cross a road but dies in the attempt. The truer explanation is either that 

 the little creature has been killed by a cat or other animal, and left uneaten 

 on account of its odour, or else that it has died of starvation through lack of 

 its proper food. The latter is all the more probable since large numbers of 

 dead shrews are often observed in the autumn, the season when there is least 

 insect life to be found. For the food of the shrew consists of insects of all kinds 

 (though it does not despise worms and snails). It is, therefore, one of the most 

 valuable helpers of the farmer, consuming as it does great quantities of noxious 

 grubs and slugs, whilst it does no harm whatever to the crops. It does not 

 burrow, but makes a nest in the springtime of soft grass, rudely roofed over, 

 in a bank or hole in the ground. Here it gives birth to five or six young. For 

 their size, shrews are extremely pugnacious, and may sometimes be seen 

 fighting and uttering the shrillest of faint squeaks. I have watched them so 

 engaged two or three yards away, totally engrossed in their warfare. It is on 

 account of these spiteful proclivities that the name of " shrew " (which means 

 " to bite " or " reprove ") has been applied to certain human beings, as, for 

 instance, to that " Katharina Minola, renowned in Padua for her scolding 

 tongue." 



The Lesser Shrew (Sorex minutus) is only if inch long in body, and so is 

 easily the smallest of British mammals, and is browner in colour than the 

 common species. It is not so frequently met with in England and Scotland, 

 though it is abundant in Ireland ; this is all the more remarkable as the 

 Common Shrew is quite unknown in the Green Isle. 



The Water Shrew (Crossopus fodiens) is of a different genus from the pre- 

 ceding, and is much larger and more handsome, being a rich blackish grey on 

 the back, and white beneath. This species makes a burrow with a chamber 



