78 
Quadrupeds. 
THE SHREW. (Sorex araneus.) 
Tins curious little animal closely resembles a mouse, ex- 
cept in its snout, which is long and pointed, to enable it 
to grub in the ground for its food, which consists of 
earthworms, and the grubs of beetles. The Shrew, like 
the mole, is very fond of fighting; and when two are 
seen together, they are generally engaged in a furious 
battle. Like the hedgehog, it has been much scanda- 
lized by false reports, as will be seen by the following 
extract from that most amusing and interesting work, 
Whites Selborne : " At the south corner of the area, near 
the church, there stood, about twenty years ago, a very 
old, grotesque, hollow pollard-ash, which for ages had 
been looked upon with no small veneration as a shrew- 
ash. Now a shrew-ash is an ash whose twigs and 
branches, when applied to the limbs of cattle, will im- 
mediately relieve the pains which a beast suffers from 
the running of a Shrew-mouse over the part affected ; for 
it is Supposed that a Shrew-mouse is of so baneful and 
deleterious a nature, that whenever it creeps over a 
beast, be it a horse, or cow, or sheep, the suffering 
animal is afflicted with cruel anguish, and threatened 
with the loss of the use of the limb. Against this acci- 
