SHREW, Sorer, a genus of small quadrupeds of the family sorecide. They are often popularly confounded with mice and rats, but are really very different, having insect. vorous and not rodent teeth. The head is very long; the snout elongated, attenuated, and capable of being moved about; the eyes small; the tail long; both body and tail covered with fine short hair; the feet have a broad, sole and 5 toes. The genus has recently been sub-divided, and the British species belong to more than one of the sub divisions. The COMMON SHREW of Britain (S. or corsira vulgaris) was, until recently, con founded with S. araneus, a species common in continental Europe. It is nearly 2f in. • in length from the snout to the root of the tail, the length of which is about 11 inches. It abounds in dry fields, gardens, and hedge-banks; feeding chiefly on insects and worms, for which it grubs with its long snout among the roots of the herbage. It burrows, and makes long runs just under the surface of tile ground. It is an excessively pugnacious little animal, and the males have fierce combats in spring, in which many are killed.
Cats kill the shrew, but do not often eat it, probably on account of its strong musky smell; but it is the prey of weasels, hawks, owls, and shrikes. Harndess and inoffensive as it is, it has long been very generally regarded with dread and aversion by the vulgar. (See White's Natural History of Selborne.)--Another and even smaller species, S. pyg mans, is found in Ireland, where it is called the shrew mole.—The WATER SHREW (S. fodiens or crossopus fodiens) is larger than the common shrew, being fully 3 in. long, and the tail 2 inches. It is of a blackish-brown color, gray or white on the underparts. It burrowsin the banks of streams, and is very aquatic in its habits. It is found in many ,partsbf Britain.—Some of the Indian species of shrew attain a much larger size, as that called the musk rat.(q.v.). There is an Italian species which is the smallest of all known mammalia. It is only about 1j- in. in length, exclusive of the tail, wthelt measures about 1 inch.