SAY’S LEAST SHREW 
147 
a 
DIMENSIONS. 
Inches. 
From point of nose to root of tail, . ... 2 ^ 
Tail, . , f 
HABITS. 
This little creature, to which the above name was attached by Say, 
was first captured by Mr. Titian R. Pealb, during Long’s Expedition 
to the Rocky Mountains, at Engineer Cantonment on the Missouri, where 
it was found in a pit-fall excavated for catching wolves. 
Look at the plate, reader, and imagine the astonishment of the hunter 
on examining the pit intended for the destruction of the savage prowlers 
of the prairies, when, instead of the game that he intended to entrap, 
he perceived this, the Least Shrew, timidly running across the bottom. 
The family to which this Shrew belongs, is somewhat allied in form 
and habits to the mole, but many species are now probably extinct. 
We have seen a fragment of a fossil remainder of the tooth of a 
Sorex, found by our young friend Dr. Leconte, of New-York, in the 
mining region adjoining Lake Superior, from the size of which, the ani- 
mal must have been at least a yard long, and no doubt was, with its 
carnivorous teeth, a formidable beast of prey ; whether it had insects 
and worms of a corresponding size to feed upon, in its day and gene- 
i-ation, is a matter of mere conjecture, as even the wonderful discoveries 
of geologists have thrown but little light on the modes of life of the 
inhabitants of the ancient world, although some whole skeletons are 
found from time to time by their researches. 
The Least Shrew feeds upon insects and larvse, worms and the flesh 
of any dead bird or beast that it may chance to discover. 
It also eats seeds and grains of different kinds. It burrows in the 
earth, but seeks its food more upon the surface of the ground than 
the mole, and runs with ease around its burrow about fences and logs. 
Some birds of prey pounce upon the Shrew, whilst it is playing or 
seeking its food on the grass, but as it has a musky, disagreeable 
smell, it is commonly left after being killed, to rot on the ground, as 
we have picked up a good many of these little quadrupeds, which to 
all appearance had been killed by either cats, owls or hawks. This 
smell arises from a secretion exuded from glands which are placed 
on the sides of the animal (Geoffroy, Mem. Mus. Hist. Nat., Vol. i., 
1815), This secretion, like that of most animals, varies according to the 
age, the season, &c., and prevails more in males than females. 
