SHREWS 



curious fact, but if you set traps in the early 

 part of the winter you only catch shrews in the 

 light fur, there are no old ones about. Now in 

 the autumn there are plenty of old as well as 

 young ones, and many of them die, and you 

 see them lying about on paths and roads. 

 Nearly aU these dead shrews are in the dark 

 fur. So many die that in olden days it was 

 believed that the very fact of trying to cross a 

 path was fatal to a shrew. Of course this was 

 merely rubbish ; shrews are very delicate little 

 creatures, but they can scamper across a road 

 without being any the worse for it ! Yet 

 that great numbers die in the autumn is a fact. 

 It has been suggested that these animals are 

 like so many plants and live only for twelve 

 months, i.e. are annuals.^ The idea is that 

 the yoimg shrew wears throughout the summer 

 in which it was bom, and on into the autumn, 

 the light grey-brown coat, after which it 

 moults and appears in the dark brown fur. 

 In this dress it breeds, rearing one or two 

 families, after which, its work in the world 

 being now done, it dies. Certainly the facts 

 fit in well with the theory, and account for 

 the strange way shrews die off in the autumn, 



1 £. L. Adamsj Wild Life, vol. i. p. 82. 



75 



