High in a mountain valley, under a roof of matted grass, the Shrew lay napping. Soon hunger would drive her back to the frenzied hunting that ruled her life. She had a ravenous appetite. In order to keep going she must eat constantly during all her waking hours.

Common as shrews are, they are so tiny and furtive, darting along under grass and leaves, that they are seldom seen. Yet bit by bit the life history of these smallest of mammals can be pieced together.

Aileen Fisher has woven the findings of science into a moving and unsentimentalized story of a long-tailed shrew in a mountain setting. Following the tiny animal's struggle to survive, we learn as well about the way of the Deer Mouse, the Ground Squirrel, the...

From the dust jacket