BRITISH MAMMALS 



last mentioned localities where it is absent, its place is taken by the 

 Lesser Shrew. 



Though the Common Shrew is often about during the winter months, 

 it is in spring, summer, and autumn that it is most frequently seen as it 

 dodges out and in among the grass and dead leaves on hedgerow banks 

 or in gardens and meadows. 



During the breeding season in spring, the males often engage in battle. 

 A combat of this kind is described by Mr. Millais, who observed two 

 which were contending so fiercely that they fell headlong down a bank 

 while locked in a deadly embrace. The food consists chiefly of slugs, 

 worms, and the larvae of insects, of which it consumes large quantities. 



What has long been a puzzle to naturalists is the cause of the strange 

 mortality among Shrews, occurring chiefly in the autumn, when numbers 

 are found lying dead by wayside paths. Various reasons have been 

 suggested as the cause, but the mystery is still unsolved. 



In olden days this species was for long the victim of superstition 

 and prejudice, various evils and misfortunes having been attributed to it, 

 such as the lameness of cattle as a result of the passing of a Shrew 

 over their feet or legs. 



The well known description by Gilbert White of how these evils 

 were believed to be curable by means of a Shrew- Ash may be quoted 

 here. " Now a shrew-ash is an ash whose twigs or branches, when 

 gently applied to the limbs of cattle, will immediately relieve the pains 

 which a beast suffers from the running of a shrew-mouse over the part 

 affected : for it is supposed that a shrew-mouse is of so baneful and 

 deleterious a nature, that wherever it creeps over a beast, be it horse, 

 cow, or sheep, the suff'ering animal is afflicted with cruel anguish and 

 threatened with the loss of the use of the limb. Against this accident, 

 to which they were continually liable, our provident forefathers always 



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