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Although shrews are among the most common of the small 
mammals on the farm they are often confused with mice or moles. 
They may be easily distinguished from all our mice by their long, 
pointed nose, by the absence of visible external ears, and by their 
short, glossy, velvet-like fur and short tail. They may be distin- 
guished from moles by their much smaller size, and by their small 
front feet. 
The color varies somewhat, but is usually sooty lead above and 
a lighter ashy lead below. There is sometimes a rusty flush to the 
color when seen in certain lights. 
If there are any factors of environment that appeal especially 
to this shrew no observer has yet been able to determine what they 
are. All places seem alike acceptable to it, and any one who has 
trapped for small mammals long will be tempted to believe literally 
in the following statement of Rhoads: ‘‘Forest and plain, sand and 
clay, barren or fruitful field, backwoods and door-yard, heat and 
cold, wet and dry, day and night have common charm for this cos- 
mopolite.”* Our own specimens were taken in practically every 
form of habitat where any other small mammal was found—even 
in the center of large corn fields in summer, where the white-footed 
prairie-mouse was the only other resident. They are usually closely 
associated with field-mice or house-mice, being almost invariably 
taken in the same localities. Very rarely does it happen that any 
locality yields shrews alone. 
Shrews inhabit burrows and runways very similar to those of 
the meadow-mice. To what extent these burrows actually are the 
work of the shrews themselves does not seem to be proven. That 
shrews do take possession of the burrows of meadow-mice seems 
certain, but it is generally supposed that they also make burrows of 
their own. Their nests are in burrows, and are made of leaves, 
grass, etc. Shull found one nest made entirely of the hair of meadow- 
TMCS: 
The food of the shrews is extremely varied. They are known 
to feed largely on insects, larval and adult, worms, and snails. They 
also eat dead mammals, even of their own kind. In captivity at 
least, they attack mice much larger than themselves, and kill and 
eat them. Their ferocity is remarkable. I once put a small shrew 
into a tin bucket with a house-mouse of twice its own weight. The 
* “The Mammals of Pennsylvania and New Jersey,” p. 192. 
