ENEMIES OF THE SORICLDJE. 37 



man in Michigan caught one very tenderly and folded it in his handker- 

 chief ; it died before he got home. Yerplanck Colvin, of the Adirondack 

 survey, took one in midwinter on the summit of Mount Edwards, and 

 saw it expire in his hands, although hardy enough to endure the rigors of 

 that weather. I once found one in my mess-kit while on a camping trip 

 in the Catskills ; placed in a box without handling, it was dead in the 

 morning. In each case, I have no doubt, the shrews were frightened to 

 death. It is extremely difficult to keep them alive in captivity. 



■"-nAiChOl-S.se. 



NEOSOREX — THE LONG-TAILED SHREW. 



Their enemies are legion, but they have the satisfaction in many 

 cases — if they appreciate it — of knowing that their capture is of no' benefit 

 to the enemy. Weasels, skunks, foxes, cats, dogs, and various serpents, 

 besides hawks, shrikes, flesh-eating ducks (like the merganser), and espe- 

 cially the owls, all pursue the shrew for food ; but most of them refuse 

 to eat it after it has been struck down, for it carries in a gland on 

 each side a musky exudation, which gives forth an odor and taste so 

 disagreeable that most animals turn away in disgust. This accounts for 

 part, no doubt, of the many dead shrews seen lying in the woods and 

 fields, by those whose eyes are intent upon noticing matters so small. 

 The fright I have spoken of may account for another share of these cases ; 

 and in extremely dry seasons many shrews no doubt starve to death, be- 

 cause the earthworms and other terrestrial insects have descended into 

 the subsoil after moisture, or fled farther than the shrew can follow 

 them. 



The utility of the scent in these glands (which is stronger in the 

 males than in the females, and more copious at certain seasons than at 

 others) is believed to be as a guide and attraction between the sexes in 

 their underground wooings, where some other sense must be appealed to 

 than that of sight — or common-sense ! But the good purpose it might 

 serve Sorex if, when hard pressed, he could emit enough of it to disgust 



