the lesser or pigmy shrew

The Lesser or Pigmy ShrewAuthor(s): C. B. MoffatSource: The Irish Naturalists' Journal, Vol. 1, No. 4 (Mar., 1926), pp. 66-68Published by: Irish Naturalists' Journal Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25531188 .

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46 The Ikish Naturalists' Journal. [Vol. I.

THE LESSER OR PIGMY SHREW.

By C. B. Moffat, B.A., M.R.I.A.

The small mouse-like animals known as Shrews, of which three species are found in Great Britain, are represented in Ire land by only one, the smallest of the three?which has the fur ther distinction of being the smallest of all British mammals, as its size and weight are only about three-fifths of those of the celebrated Harvest Mouse, which was thought entitled to that honour by Gilbert White.

Photo: A. H. George. Lesser Shrew.

It is curious that we can now use of our little Shrew the

precise words with which White, writing in 1768, sought to convey an idea of the extreme minuteness of his newly-discovered Har

vest Mice, when he told Pennant that "

two of them, in a scale, weighed down just one copper halfpenny." These words, though still sometimes quoted, would not, of course, be found true of the Harvest Mouse if tried at the present time with one of our

modern halfpence. But even a modern halfpenny will balance two bodies of the Lesser Shrew?unless when the animals have

just been indulging in one of their habitual heavy feeds, for a Shrew thinks nothing of consuming twice its own weight in 24

hours.

The Lesser Shrew is probably more plentiful in Ireland than it is in England, though this is a point on which mistakes may easily be made, for the little animal is very hard to distinguish from the young of the Common Shrew, and may for that reason be considerably less rare in many parts of England than is com

monly believed. It seems to be found in all parts of Ireland, though never in such numbers as to take the place filled in Great

Britain by its larger relative.

Easily known from the true mice by their long tapering snouts, the Shrews, owing to their retiring and partly nocturnal



March, 1926.] 67

habits, are not very often seen alive, even where they most

abound; and this is particularly true of our little Irish species, which, even when it comes out in full daylight, is, from its small size, far from easy to see as it slips about among the herbage. Judging from the few occasions on which I have seen it on the

move, I think the evening twilight is its favourite time for be

ginning to stir; but it is apparently not a very strict observer of rules in this respect. Its shrill and rather grasshopper-like chirp is scarcely ever heard except at night; but here, again, it must

be remembered that many sounds are quite easily heard by night which the hum of day will effectively drown.

One of the most curious points about Shrews is the extra

ordinary frequency with which they are seen dead. Our little Irish species is no exception to this rule, and most of us have, from time to time, seen its dead body lying in the middle of a road or pathway, often quite fresh and sleek, and presenting no outward sign of any injury. It is chiefly in late summer and autumn that these tiny corpses meet our eye, and much specu lation has long existed as to the cause of the mortality that

evidently attacks the Shrews at that season. Mr. Lionel Adams

has, however, established a strong case in favour of the hitherto

unsuspected opinion that Shrews are "annuals/* whose natural

lives come to an end in the summer or autumn following the year of their birth; so that the corpses we see in autumn are simply those of Shrews that have completed their span of life and

expired of old age. The question why such large numbers of the little animals

apparently select roads and pathways in which to die still remains a puzzle. Our forefathers had a very simple explanation, for they held that it was certain death for a Shrew to attempt to cross a cart-track. Though it may be a rash suggestion, I am inclined to

suspect that in seeking water the little creatures mistake roads and lanes for partially dried-up water-courses, and wander along the supposed stream-bed till they die of thirst. I was much struck with the number of dead Shrews (all of our Irish "pigmy" species) that I saw lying in the Denbighshire lanes?more nume

rously than I had ever seen them in Ireland?during the pro longed drought of last July. Shrews can only endure a *ery brief abstinence from either drink or food, and are for this reason most difficult to keep in confinement, generally dying in the course of the night following their capture.

There is another way in which the dead body of the Pigmy Shrew often comes under our notice: for a

thoughtful cat some

times makes a practice of carrying the little creatures into the house to present them to her mistress, having killed them, pre sumably, in mistake for mice. Shrews, as is well known, are

rejected as food by cats; but they are not similarly objected to

by all beasts and birds of prey, and their bones are of fairly frequent occurrence in the castings of the Long-eared Owl and the Barn Owl,



68 The Irish Naturalists' Journal. [Vol. !

The young are born and reared in a neatly constructed nest of grass and moss, which is sometimes mistaken for that of the

Harvest Mouse?an animal not found in Ireland. May and June seem to be the usual months of births, and though second broods are said to occur they

can hardly be very common, as the mor

tality among the adults may be nearly at its maximum by the

beginning of August. The old belief that Shrews became torpid for the winter is

now set aside, as they are known to be active in every winter

month, and even in extremely cold weather. As they live mainly on worms and insects, it is certainly difficult to imagine how creatures of such enormous appetite can get .enough food to keep them alive through the winter. In extremity they are perfectly ready to eat one another.

It is well to add that the Shrew, though so like a mouse in

appearance?and in Ireland commonly called the Grass-Mouse? is in its habits as absolutely harmless as the true mice are mis chievous. It is to be hoped that the time is for ever gone by

when it was persecuted as a malignant little being that caused all sorts of disasters by the mere fact of running over a ccw's or horse's back. Whether the cruel remedy known as the

" shrew

ash," so familiar to readers of Gilbert White, was ever practised in Ireland is a point on which I have no information.

ZOOLOGICAL SIFTINGS. A LONELY PAIR OF BLACKBIRDS ON IRELAND'S EYE.

Early last year (the 9th of May to be exact) a friend, Mr. E. C.

Barrington, and I went to Ireland's Eye to spend the day amidst the birds. We saw a pair of thrushes, and what we at first thought was a Ring Ousel, but on closer observation discovered it to be a Blackbird. By accident about two hours afterwards we found the Blackbird's nest (Plate IV.), on the north side of the island, almost at its highest point. The nest was

placed ii the centre of a colony of Puffins and Shearwaters, and without any protection from the north and east winds.

Although I have been on Ireland's Eye before, I have never seen a Blackbird or a Thrush there. It is remarkable that a lover of thick bushes and woods should wander to so desolate a place, almost devoid of

any high vegetation, to nest among sea-birds of totally different habits.

A. A. LISNEY.

Cremorne, Shankill, Co. Dublin.

GOLDEN-CRESTED WREN DISABLED BY SPIDER'S WEB. A bird incident happened here in October, which, although trivial,

may be of interest to some readers. One of the housemaids repor ted to me that a sick or wounded bird lay on the floor of the porch entrance to my house, and, on being asked to fetch it, brought to me a Golden crested Wren which she had

picked up without difficulty. On examining it I could find no trace of injury, while it remained quite passive in my. hand. Its eyes were quite bright, but I noticed that the beautiful little crest was soiled by some white fluffy debris, which I relieved with a hand

kerchief, and more of the same stuff was entangled in its feet?which was not as easily removed. I then took the beautiful little creature to another room to show it to my wife, and it seemed so helpless that we both thought



the lesser or pigmy shrew

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