Dear Log,
«Who knew there were so many venomous mammals? I knew about the hind claw of the male platypus, of course, but never imagined there were so many other venomous mammals. Take the Hispaniolan Solendon on page 79, which looks like a child in a shrew-head mask. This native of the Caribbean "...scrabbles on the forest floor for prey, sniffing it out with its long, mobile snout and stunning it with a poisonous bite, which it also uses for defence." All the shrews seem to carry poisoned daggers in their mouths; the Eurasian Water Shrew uses "a venom in its saliva," while the North American Short-Tailed Shrew kills with a "toxic bite."Reading about the shrews cheers you up, because nobody's going to wipe out these little hitmen anytime soon. The small, mean and hyperactive always have an advantage, whether they walk on two legs or four. But for other, bigger, gentler mammals it's already too late...it's hard to read about them without bitter grief and rage, and a longing for the mammal jihad which is so long overdue. Why is there a jihad for every wretched ethnic gang in the world, but no jihad for the mammals?»
