Wherever they travel these shrews utilize the runways of the field mice or other small animals and make little runs of their own only where necessary. Aside from a faint squeak, I have never heard them utter a sound, but other observers credit them with series of fine twittering notes apparently uttered as a song.
The common shrew is a solitary animal of so morose a disposition that if two are placed in a cage together they almost immediately fall upon one another with tooth and nail, and the victor devours the body of its companion at a single meal. The digestion of shrews is so rapid and the call for food so incessant that it requires constant activity to keep the demand satisfied.
After the winter snow arrived in the North I found many tunnels of these shrews running just under its surface and raising it a little in a slight but distinctly rounded ridge. Such tunnels wandered widely and on the ice of the Yukon River I traced one of them more than a mile and repeatedly saw them crossing the river from bank to bank. It was surprising to note the ability of the little travelers under the surface to keep in so nearly a direct line for long distances.
At times these little adventurers make similar tunnels in the snow far out on the sea ice. The mythology of the Eskimos contains accounts of many supernatural animals which a lone hunter may meet and which have the power to do him deadly harm. Among these the “sea shrew” is one of the most malignant. Its appearance is described as exactly like that of the common land shrew, but it is said to live on the ice at sea, and if it sees a hunter to dart at him through the air, pierce the skin, and, after running all through the body with incredible rapidity, to enter the man’s heart and kill him. In consequence of this belief the Eskimo hunters were in mortal terror if they chanced to encounter a stray shrew on the sea ice. I knew one hunter who suddenly meeting one on the ice stood motionless for hours until the shrew wandered out of sight. He then hastened home and all the other hunters agreed he had had a lucky escape.
LITTLE SKUNK, POLECAT, OR SPILOGALE
This trail combines the characteristics of the skunk with those of a squirrel. At first it looks like the track of a stubby-toed squirrel, but the five-inch toe on the front foot is plainly seen. The frequent pairing of the fore paws is important. There is no tail mark (see [pages 558] and [576]).
THE SHORT-TAILED SHREW (Blarina brevicauda and its relatives)
(For illustration, [see page 566])
Several groups of species or genera of the little mouselike animals known as shrews are peculiar to North America. Of these one of the most numerous and best known is the short-tailed shrew. It is a dark-colored animal much more heavily proportioned, larger, and with a shorter tail than the common shrew. Its fur is so thick and velvety that it is confused by many people with the mole, despite its smaller size.