882 The Zoologist — September, 1867. 



So that altogether the poor hedgehog seems to have lost in popular 

 story what little character he ever possessed. 



Common Shrew. — But of all ill-treated animals surely the poor 

 "erd-shrew" was the worst used. Perfectly harmless, and even 

 useful, he has been marked by popular belief as poisonous and hateful, 

 and the remedies to be applied to those he afflicted generally involved 

 the death or torture of the wretched animal. It would be unnecessary 

 to quote White of Selborne's well-known account of how a " shrew- 

 ash" was made, viz. by plugging the unfortunate creature up in a hole 

 bored in an ash-tree, the twigs of which were henceforth endowed with 

 the power of curing the " shrew-struck," that is, those who had been 

 unlucky enough to be touched by this " ravening beast." The Rev. J. 

 Wood quotes an old author named Topsel (1658), who prescribes 

 various other remedies; first, the earth of a cart-road, which is fatal 

 to them ; secondly, " the shrew, which by falling by chance into a 

 cart-rode or track, doth die upon the same," is to be burned, beaten 

 to dust, mixed with goose-grease, and used as an ointment. The pre- 

 parations were for the injuries caused by the animal itself, but other 

 formula; were specifics for " fell on s or biles," "impostrumes" and the 

 "bite of a greedy and raveuous dog" (Wood, 'Popular Natural 

 History,' vol. i. p. 435). 



Mole. — The mole has bright little eyes, but it has been pronounced 

 by tradition to be blind, and blind it will probably remain with the 

 multitude to the end : however, there is some foundation for this 

 belief, a really sightless mole [Talpa cosca) being found in Southern 

 Europe, which was probably the species best known to the ancients. 

 The "moudiewarp" is gradually spreading through the Scotch High- 

 lands, and a Gaelic soothsayer has foretold that when it has overrun 

 Argyleshire to the Mull of Cantyre it will drive all the Campbells, the 

 great landowners of that district, from their estates. Here the wish is 

 probably the father to the thought, for the " sons of Diarmid" are not 

 popular with their less fortunate neighbours. 



Wolverine. — This appears to be another ill-treated animal, its 

 common and by no means flattering cognomen of "glutton" having 

 arisen, according to Voigt, from a mistranslation. The Fins call it 

 " fiael-frass," a dweller among rocks, which has been confounded with 

 the German word " viel-frass," a glutton. If you give a dog an evil 

 name you may hang it, saith the proverb, and accordingly the wol- 

 verine's habits, voracious enough in themselves, have been exaggerated 

 to suit its name. Thus it was believed that when it had eaten to 



