THE LESSER OR PIGMY SHREW 
Its hold on life is so slight that it soon dies in confinement, even 
when caught by hand and uninjured. 
One brought to me by a man working in my garden at first appeared 
quite lively and readily took the flies I provided while making the 
sketches for the figure in the Plate, but soon a gradual change began 
and it was dead in a few hours. 
When feeding the long flexible snout was bent in almost any direc- 
tion, while the fore feet were not used to hold the flies when eating, 
entirely different from the action of a mouse in similar circumstances. 
At times the Lesser Shrew seems quite indifferent to the presence 
of human beings. I once observed one among some grass on a lawn 
which allowed me to approach so closely and seemed so tame that I 
caught some flies which it at once devoured, and becoming still more 
femiliar it moved on to the palm of my hand and allowed me to lift 
it from the ground. 
This is the only instance I have met with of such unusual lameness 
in a wild animal, but Mr. Millais mentions a somewhat similar case 
when a Water Vole allowed itself to be stroked {Mammals of Great 
'Britain and Ireland, appendix). The nest and number of young are 
much the same as those of the Common Shrew. 
+1 
F 
