The curious grooved track in the snow with the tail mark is seen on the left ([see pages 566] and [593]).
Like other shrews and the moles, their digestion appears to be very rapid and they will eat two or three times their own weight in a day. This necessitates great activity on their part during much of the time in order to find the required food. They prefer insects and meat, but are practically omnivorous, feeding not only upon many kinds of insects, but on earthworms, slow-worms, sow-bugs, snails, slugs, mice, shrews, and the young of ground-nesting birds, as well as such vegetable food as beechnuts, seeds, bread, and oatmeal.
The instinct of prevision against the season of winter scarcity appears to be developed in them, as one in captivity buried beechnuts in the earth, and they are known to store living snails in small piles and to gather disabled beetles in store-rooms in their tunnels.
The courage and blind ferocity of the short-tailed shrews when they are placed near captive mice far larger than themselves, is amazing to all who witness their encounters. They attack instantly, spreading their front feet to gain a firmer footing and moving forward in little rushes. Mice larger and much more powerful than the shrew are persistently attacked and, finally giving out, are pounced upon and the flesh torn from their heads and necks with ravening eagerness. One day a passing observer heard a loud squealing on a railroad bank where an examination revealed a short-tailed shrew dragging away a nearly dead pine mouse, though the mouse was much the heavier. The notes of shrews are a fine tremulous squeak which becomes a longer, harsher, and more twittering or chattering cry when they are angry.
DOG GALLOPING IN SNOW
Showing the curious change whereby the right front ceases to take first place; no doubt this rests the muscles a little. This is typical of many animals ([see page 597]).
No cessation of their activity occurs in winter. When the cold weather begins many gather about barns and houses located near woods or old fields, and thus with the field mice take advantage of the garnered food supplies and shelter. Others remain in their regular haunts, where they frequently burrow long distances in the snow, making networks of tunnels and traveling long distances just below the surface, leaving little raised ridges like the track of a mole on the ground. Their journeys upon and under the surface of the snow appear to be in search of food, as they burrow down to old logs and stumps which make good feeding grounds. Their movements are very active, as they go about either at a walk or quick trot.
These fierce and truculent little hunters are wholly beneficial in their habits and should be encouraged in place of being killed on sight indiscriminately, as one of the ordinary mouse tribe.