38 ERKOKS AND FABLES ABOUT SHREWS. 



his pursuer into giving up the chase, is denied him ; for by the time puss 

 finds out that her prey is not a toothsome, grain-fattened mouse, the fatal 

 stroke has been dealt. 



A similar mistake causes the death of many an innocent shrew at the 

 hands of the farmer, who should be zealous to preserve them. Their in- 

 satiable voracity is all for his benefit, since it is directed chiefly towards 

 the grubs and beetles, borers, weevils, and other pests of orchard and 

 farm. This pursuit of insects lurking at the roots of his cherished plants 

 goes on ceaselessly and vigilantly all the year round, and there is no one 

 of the list of animals that should be more carefully protected than the 

 shrew, unless it may be liis cousin the mole. 



I have not attempted in this article to go beyond the biography of 

 our own American shrews. Those of Europe and Asia are better known, 

 and would furnish a longer essay. The name "shrew" comes to us from 

 the Anglo-Saxon scredwa — ■" a biter." The other epithet-word shrew, ap- 

 plied to scolding humanity, has nothing to do with this etymologically ; 

 but when we think of the sharp face, the purblind eye, the poking dispo- 

 sition, and the rasping, high-pitched voice of the diminutive quadruped, 

 not to speak of the hot temper and needle-teeth, a parallel is certainly 

 suggested. 



A ridiculous fable has attached to this little animal in the north of 

 Europe from time immemorial, that it maliciously bites and poisons cattle, 

 whence its name of " venomous mouse" in several lauguages. The name 

 by which the animal is known among the French peasantry is musaraigne. 

 In this it is easy to see the derivation from the Latin mus araneus; and 

 the explanation is, that the bite of the shrew was formerly considered as 

 poisonous as that of the spider was supposed to be. 



I had hoped this had not been imported ; but I find in Dr. E. Em- 

 mons's Report upon the Quadrupeds of Massachusetts, published in 1840, 

 that in that State the farmers had, at that time at least, so strong a preju- 

 dice against these animals that they killed them at every opportunity. 

 "If a shrew," they told Dr. Emmons, "should run over the leg of a cow 

 or horse while reposing in the grass, it would cause lameness." 



