tee common seeejf. 
37r 
with from thirty to thirty-two teeth, there being four or five premolars in the upper and only two in 
the lower jaw; with a basal tubercle to the upper inner incisors ; with ears of moderate size directed 
backwards, a long tail, and the feet not fringed with hairs. 
Our Common Shrew is a pretty little mouse-like creature (see figure in the full-page illustration), mea- 
suring about two inches and three-quarters in length, with a tail rather more than an inch and a half long. 
Its fur is generally of a reddish-grey colour above, and greyish beneath ; but the colour varies consider- 
ably, being sometimes blackish or chestnut above, and tinged with yellow 
beneath. The fore teeth are of a rich brown colour. The tail is four- 
sided,* with the angles rounded off, and is nearly of equal thickness 
throughout; it is covered with short, close, stiifish hairs. Mr. Bell 
states that the Shrew sometimes occurs spotted with white, and that 
he possesses one specimen “ which is beautifully pied, having a broad 
white band over the loins, which extends all round the animal.” 
The food of the Common Shrew consists chiefly of insects and worms, 
but it also eats the smaller mollusca, and even the common Slug ( Limax 
agrestis), according to Mr. Bell, who says that he has not only found the remains of that animal in its 
stomach, but has also fed it upon slugs in confinement. Like its ally, the Mole, it is very pugnacious, 
and two Shrews rarely come together without a battle, when the weaker one is killed and eaten. The 
breeding season of the Shrew is in the spring, when the female makes a comfortable nest of soft dry 
herbage in some convenient hole in the ground, and there brings forth from five to seven young ones. 
Their increase is checked to a certain extent by natural enemies. Thus, the Mole is said to kill and 
eat them when they come in his way ; and Cats, Weasels, Owls, and some other animals, will also kill 
them ; and some at least do not disdain to make a meal upon them. The Barn Owl especially seems 
to make great havoc among the Shrews. 
All sorts of evil qualities were attributed to the Shrew by our ancestors, some of which are 
still believed in. One old writer says that the Shrew-mouse is u a kind of Field-mouse of the big- 
ness of a Bat and colour of a Weasel, very mischievous to cattel ; which, going over a beast’s back, 
will make it lame in the chine ; and the bite of it causes the beast to swell at the heart and die.” The 
running of a Shrew over the leg of a beast was generally believed to cause the latter great pain, and 
to produce lameness. The proper cure for these imaginary ills was on a par with the mischief ; the 
remedy was the application to the part affected of a branch or twig of a shrew-ash, which, says Gilbert 
White, “ was made thus : into the body ot the tree a deep hole was bored with an auger, and a poor 
devoted Shrew-mouse was thrust in alive, and plugged in, no doubt with several quaint incantations 
since forgotten.” 
There is one circumstance in the natural history of the Shrew that must have struck everybody, 
although it is still entirely unexplained. This is the death of great numbers of these animals in 
autumn without any apparent cause. Besidents in the country will know that at that season Shrews 
may be seen lying dead 021 almost every footpath ; in fact, the observation is so general as to have 
given rise to another superstition, namely, that a Shrew cannot cross a public path without paying the 
penalty of death. The individuals thus found dead are of both sexes, and of various ages. 
The Common Shrew occurs not only in the British Islands, but also over the whole continent of 
Europe, from Sweden and Bussia to the shores of the Mediterranean. 
The Lesser Shrew (Sorex pyymckus , see figure in the full-page illustration) is a second British 
species nearly allied to the preceding, but smaller, measuring rather less than two inches in length, 
and with a proportionately longer tail. The lower parts of the body are also whiter. It is the 
smallest of British Mammals, f 
DEKAY’S SHEEW-i 
Some small species of American Shrews agree with the restricted genus Sorex in the number of 
* Hence the species was called S. teircujonurus , by Hermann. 
f Two or three other Old World species belong to this group, among which may be mentioned the Alpine Shrew (S. 
alpinus), which appears to range from the Alps to India ; and the Blackish Shrew (S. nif/rescens), a very common species in 
Sikkim and Ncpaul. At Darjeling Mr. Jerdon found many specimens lying dead in the roads without apparent injury. 
Several allied species also inhabit North America, such as Forster’s Shrew (S. Forsterii), the Long-nosed Shrew (/S'. 
longirostris), &c. J Blarina Dekayi. 
