Mice, as everybody knows, feed mainly on seeds and grains, though they are fairly omnivorous, and do not despise either bees or beetles. But the shrew, less promiscuous, eschews all vegetable foods; he makes his diet entirely of insects, worms, and slugs, of which he devours an incredible number. Hence he haunts for the most part dry fields and gardens, where such prey is abundant. His preference is also for a soft sandy or light loamy soil, in which he can burrow with ease with the muzzle alone, for his slender feet are ill adapted for digging through hard earth or clay. A relative of the mole, he makes long runs, like his cousin, through the soft surface-soil in search of insects; but, unlike the mole again, he has preserved his small, keen eyes intact, and lives, on the whole, as much above ground as beneath it. Yet his cousinship stands him in small stead with his big purblind relation; for moles catch and eat shrews in considerable numbers. This is not to be wondered at, perhaps, when one reflects that the unnatural shrews also eat one another. Cannibalism, indeed, is an unamiable trait common to man and the insectivores. Weasels, owls, and cats are also great shrew-killers; though, strange to say, the shrew, when killed, is by no means always eaten. I put this down in the main to the powerful scent-glands, which run along the side of the body, or occur at the root of the tail, in most species of shrew, and which secrete a very strong and odorous liquid. This liquid, I fancy, is partly protective, partly attractive to the opposite sex. It would seem to be distasteful to outsiders, but not unpleasant to insectivores themselves, for cats will kill a shrew from pure love of sport, or by mistake for a mouse, but will seldom or never eat it, whereas shrews themselves and moles have no such prejudice. Owls, also, eat shrews, in spite of their flavour. I believe such sexually attractive scents almost always coexist with the pugnacious temperament. All musky-perfumed animals fight savagely with one another for possession of their females, as do also those with marked frills or top-knots.
Shrews, though comparatively seldom seen by incurious eyes, abound by myriads in most parts of England. Every summer they increase sevenfold; but as autumn approaches, and food grows scarce, they die off in their thousands from cold and hunger, as I gather. So many of them then strew the footpaths in sandy districts that country people have a quaint superstition about them; they say a shrew cannot cross a church-path without dying instantly. What constitutes a church-path is somebody having once gone to church along it. The truth is, dead shrews abound equally in the grass and thickets; but, of course, only those are seen which happen to die in the open. This is but one out of many hundred odd superstitions about the shrew, which may be regarded, indeed, as the most wizard-like animal now left in England.
THE END.
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