1co THE SHREW MOUSE. 
nose is supposed to be for the purpose of enabling the animal to root in the 
ground alter the various creatures on which it feeds, or to thrust its head 
among the densest and closest herbage. Many insects and their larve are 
found in such localities, and it is upon such food that the Shrew chiefly 
subsists. Worms are also captured and eaten by the Shrew, which in many 
of its habits is not unlike the mole. 
The bite of the shrew is so insignificant as to make hardly any impress even 
on the delicate skin of the human hand. Popular prejudice, however, here 
steps in, and attributes to the bite of the shrew such venomous properties, 
that in many districts of England the viper is less feared than the little harm- 
less Shrew. 
The very touch of the Shrew’s foot is considered a certain herald of evil, 
and animals or men. which had been “ shrew-struck,” were supposed to labour 
under a malady which was incurable except by a rather singular remedy, 
which partakes somewhat of a homeeopathic principle, that “ similia similibus 
curantur.” 
The curative power which alone could heal the shrew-stroke lay in the 
branches of a shrew-ash, or an ash-tree which had been imbued with the 
a, i) WX 
o WY c.g SN : 
ERD SHREW, OR SHREW MOUSE.—(Corsira vulgaris.) 
shrewish nature by a very simple process. A living Shrew was captured and 
carried to the ash-tree which was intended to receive the healing virtues. An 
auger-hole was made into the trunk, the poor Shrew was introduced into the 
cavity, and the auger-hole closed by a wooden plug. Fortunately for the 
wretched little prisoner, the entire want of air would almost immediately cause 
its death. But were its little life to linger for ever so long a time in the ash- 
trunk, its incarceration would still have taken place, for where superstition 
raises its cruel head, humanity is banished. 
The nest of the Shrew is not made in the burrow, as might be supposed, 
but is built in a suitable depression in the ground, or ina hole ina bank. It 
is made of leaves and other similar, substances, and is entered through a hole 
