MAMMALS. 31 



superficial resemblance to mice, with, slender soft- 

 haired bodies, small eyes, and tolerably long, thickly 

 haired tails. Shrews are extremely voracious, eating 

 daily more than their own weight of food, and 

 destroying an enormous quantity of subterranean 

 vermin. They live in underground passages, not 

 usually made by themselves, but dug out by field- 

 voles. They smell strongly of musk, secreted by two 

 glands in the hinder part of the body. 



The blackish-brown Shrew-mouse, or Common Shrew 

 {Borex vulgaris), and the Lesser Shrew (Sorex pyg- 

 TTKBUs), only about two inches long, kill, in the corn- 

 fields, gardens, or woodland, an enormous quantity of 

 noxious insects found in the earth, together with 



Fig. 17. — The Common Shrew (Soreoi vulgaris'). 



their larvse; also snails and worms, and sometimes 

 field-voles, and are in the highest degree serviceable. 

 But the larger (up to 3J inches long), black Water 

 Shrew (Sorex fodiens), although serviceable on land 

 in the same way as the other kinds, is very injurious 

 to fishing and fish-breeding, since it devours the small 

 fish and kills the larger ones, eating out their eyes 

 and brains. 



The Mole {Taljpa europcea). Body thick, cylindrical. 

 Legs short, fore legs broad and spade-like, with 

 broad digging claws. Eyes small, scarcely visible 

 among the fur. No external ears; the auditory 

 opening can be completely closed by a fold of skin. 

 Shining black fur. The mole is found in every soil 



