96 SORICID^— SOREX 



hunger, it will attack less ignoble game, such as young frogs. 

 These, as well as lizards, small birds and their eggs, and mammals, 

 are included in its dietary by Victor Fatio and Monsieur Henri 

 Gadeau de Kerville. The latter observation has often been 

 corroborated by trappers of the smaller mammals, whose captures 

 are constantly subjected to attacks, and in Norway it damages 

 snared willow-grouse and is never absent from fish-curing 

 stations (Collett). Shrews cannot resist carrion of any sort. 

 In consuming mice, they sometimes turn the skin inside out, 

 after the manner of a cat with a rabbit ; ^ but Mr L. E. Adams 

 finds that the almost invariable rule is to begin the meal at the 

 upper ribs, eat into the carcase, and finish at the brain. Leonard 

 Jenyns declared that they relish vegetable matter, and Charles 

 St John stated ^ that they will bark trees ; but no corroboration 

 of these statements has been forthcoming in recent years for 

 Britain ; their tastes certainly descend to cheese, bread, aniseed, 

 and even nuts when used as a bait. 



It is certain that they much prefer a diet of living things, 

 but animals which thrive right up to the North Cape, in 

 Norway, and are active throughout the Arctic winter, can 

 hardly afford to be particular about what they eat, and 

 Professor Collett remarks that in Norway they eat soft 

 vegetable food when occasion arises, and can be caught with 

 apple or greenstuff as a bait. 



American naturalists describe their " shrews " as being 

 about as omnivorous as any creatures could well be, their diet 

 varying from mice, which they take a special pleasure in killing, 

 to grain when no other food is available. These remarks, 

 however, refer more particularly to the Short-tailed Shrews or 

 Blarinas,' the habits of which are better known in America 

 than are those of the Soricidse representing our own species. 

 But, since in their appetites the smaller shrews differ from the 

 larger only in so far as they are affected by lesser size and 

 weaker power, all may be expected to have similar propensities. 

 Dr C. Hart Merriam observed a captured Blarina of 11.20 



1 N. B. Kinnear. 



^ Natural History of the Highlands ; the trees could only have been very young 

 ones. 



' Genus Blarina. 



