174 MAMMALIA. 



like the shadow of an embryonic mouse, appears and vanishes before 

 the retina can catch its perfect image. Anon, the restless phantom 

 flits across an open space, leaving no trace behind. But a charge of 

 fine shot, dropped with quick aim upon the next leaf that moves, will 

 usually solve the mystery. The author of the perplexing commotion 

 is found to be a curious sharp-nosed creature, no bigger than one's 

 little finger, and weighing hardly more than half a dram.-== Its cease- 

 less activity, and the rapidity with which it darts from place to place, 

 is truly astonishing, and rarely permits the observer a correct im- 

 pression of its form. 



Whenever a tree or a large limb falls to the ground, these Shrews 

 soon find it, examining every part with great care, and if a knot-hole 

 or crevice is detected, leading to a cavity within, they are pretty sure 

 to enter, carry in materials for a nest, and take formal possession. 

 Hence their homes are not infrequendy discovered and destroyed by 

 the wood-chopper. 



They are sometimes found in meadows, and I remember killing 

 eleven in one day, several years ago, under hay-cocks that had been 

 standing a few days in the rain. 



Not only are these agile and resdess litde Shrews voracious and 

 almost insatiable, consuming incredible quantities of raw meat and 

 insects with great eagerness, but they are veritable cannibals withal, 

 and will even slay and devour their own kind. I once confined three 

 of them under an ordinary tumbler. Almost immediately they com- 

 menced fighting, and in a few minutes one was slaughtered and eaten 

 by the other two. Before night one of these killed and ate its only 

 surviving companion, and its abdomen was much distended by the 

 meal. Hence in less than eight hours one of these tiny wild beasts 

 had attacked, overcome, and ravenously consumed two of its own 

 species, each as large and heavy as itself! The functions of diges- 

 tion, assimilation, and the elimination of waste are performed with 

 wonderful rapidity, and it seems incomprehensible that they should 



* The largest specimen I have recently examined from this region weighed 2. 85 grammes. 



