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Short-tailed Shrew — Part 2
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Many of them take up their winter quarters in cellars where they forage around in dusky corners for worms and insects, or help themselves to whatever meat is left within their reach. Their holes are dug into the surrounding soil and are probably being multiplied and extended throughout the winter in search of worms.
There is no increasing pile of dirt at the entrance to indicate the little miner's progress, however. Like a true mole, he disposes of the loose earth by pressing it aside as he goes along, making a clear passage with smooth, compact walls.
None of the shrews appear to hibernate, and whether the mole shrew ever passes the entire winter burrowing about in the ground beneath the frost, or not, is hard to determine. The genuine moles are believed to occupy themselves in this manner all winter long and, of course, it is quite possible that the mole shrew may do likewise, but I have my doubts about it.
At all events, numbers of them are out on the surface of the snow, even in the very coldest weather, when the ground beneath is like stone. Part of their food at such times is obtained by gleaning after the owls and foxes and other hunters of the woodland. If they depended on this alone most of them would starve long before spring, as even in warm weather they require food oftener than almost any other creature of their size, and though insects in small numbers are always to be found on the snow, these would hardly suffice to appease a mole-shrew's hunger. I believe that they get the greater part of their food at this season by burrowing about among the dead leaves beneath the snow in the forests, gathering the dormant insects that habitually pass the winter in such places.
The disagreeable, musky smell which they emit when frightened or angry serves to protect them from many of the marauders of the forest, but not from all. Owls of all kinds appear to be well pleased with their flavours, and catch and devour them in large numbers.
Neither are weasels to be deterred by their odour from including them as a regular article of diet, but cats, and I believe a majority of the hawks, only eat them when compelled to by stress of hunger, though they frequently kill them, either mistaking them for mice, or else doing it for fun.
I have often picked up recently killed specimens that bore the unmistakable marks of the claws of a bird of prey, while cats are forever bringing them home from their hunting trips and leaving them about on the lawn or in the paths. I have never known a cat to bring one of them into the house, or show the least atom of pride over its capture. Even the most inexperienced of kittens, who invariably go off into perfect ecstasies of delight if they have succeeded in bagging a baby mouse, or a fledgling fallen from the nest, show only indifference or contempt when there is only a mole shrew to exhibit.
Foxes, I believe, usually bring them home for the cubs to play with, as they do everything else that comes within their reach in summer, but I am inclined to think that such unsavoury morsels are seldom used as food by them during the season of abundance, though undoubtedly there are often times in midwinter when many a fox is glad to get even a mole shrew for supper.
Species and Varieties of Short-tailed Shrews
Beside the common short-tailed shrew and its several geographic varieties, we have another quite distinct smaller species of a different colour. The eastern species and varieties are as follows:
1. Northern Short-tailed Shrew. Blarina brevicauda (Say). Description and range as above.
2. Southern Short-tailed Shrew. B. brevicauda carolinensis (Bachman). Smaller throughout, otherwise similar.
3. Everglade Short-tailed Shrew. B. brevicauda peninsulae (Merriam). Grayer than the last, with larger feet.
4. Brown Shrew. B. parva (Say). Very distinct from any of the above; colour dark-brown or iron-gray, ashy below; occurs in the same localities as the short-tailed shrew and doubtless is identical in habits.
5. Florida Brown Shrew. B. floridana Merriam. Rather larger, with narrower skull and white teeth.