7 6 
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 infrequently 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 restless little 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 fioflitino;, 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. 
