SMALLER MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA 



487 



runways of the field mice or other 

 small animals and make little runs 

 of their own only where necessary. 

 Aside from a faint squeak, I have 

 never heard them utter a sound, 

 but other observers credit them with 

 series of fine twittering notes ap- 

 parently uttered as a song. 



The common shrew is a solitary 

 animal of so morose a disposition 

 that if two are placed in a cage to- 

 gether they almost immediately fall 

 upon one another with tooth and 

 nail, and the victor devours the body 

 of its companion at a single meal. 

 The digestion of shrews is so rapid 

 and the call for food so incessant 

 that it requires constant activity to 

 keep the demand satisfied. 



After the winter snow arrived in 

 the North I found many tunnels of 

 these shrews running just under its 

 surface and raising it a little in a 

 slight but distinctly rounded ridge. 

 Such tunnels wandered widely and 

 on the ice of the Yukon River I 

 traced one of them more than a mile 

 and repeatedly saw them crossing the 

 river from bank to bank. It was sur- 

 prising to note the ability of the little 

 travelers under the surface to keep 

 in so nearly a direct line for long dis- 

 tances. 



At times these little adventurers 

 make similar tunnels in the snow far 

 out on the sea ice. The mythology 

 of the Eskimos contains accounts of 

 many supernatural animals which a 

 lone hunter may meet and which 

 have the power to do him deadly 

 harm. Among these the "sea shrew" 

 is one of the most malignant. Its 

 appearance is described as exactly 

 like that of the common land shrew, 

 but it is said to live on the ice at sea, 

 and if it sees a hunter to dart at him 

 through the air, pierce the skin, and, 

 after running all through the body 

 with incredible rapidity, to enter the 

 man's heart and kill him. In con- 

 sequence of this belief the Eskimo 

 hunters were in mortal terror if they 

 chanced to encounter a stray shrew 

 on the sea ice. I knew one hunter 

 who suddenly meeting one on the ice 

 stood motionless for hours until the 

 shrew wandered out of sight. He 

 then hastened home and all the other 

 hunters agreed he had had a lucky 

 escape. 



THE SHORT-TAILED SHREW 



(Blarina brevicauda and its 



relatives) 



(For illustration, see page 464) 



Several groups of species or genera 

 of the little mouselike animals known 

 as shrews are peculiar to North 









k 





SkunK 



the: trail, of the: common skunk 



The hind foot of the skunk rarely shows the claws 

 in the track. The diagonal set during the gallop is char- 

 acteristic (see pages 456 and 477). 



