Shaune Wittie, age 11, of Petersburg, Virginia, for his question:

Which is the world's smallest mammal?

For years, this title has been held by the pigmy shrew of North America. Then, in April of this year, the furry midget seemed about to lose his miniature rank in the mammal world. But the astounding news turned out to be a very funny hoax and matters are back to normal.

Some of Andy's readers browse through a magazine called Natural History, either at ; home or in the school library. The colorful pictures give us unexpected glimpses into the world of nature and the articles, though written by scholars of world renown, are easy to read. This information may seem far removed from the world's smallest mammal but it has bearing on the question.

In the April magazine, there appeared a story, a detailed story illustrated with detailed drawings. It told of a group of recently discovered mammals that were even smaller than the pigmy shrew, who claims to be the world's smallest mammal. The newly found animals were mousey little fellows, said to inhabit a Pacific island that has since sunk beneath the waves. They were described in scholarly terms and the details of their shapes and habits seemed too fantastic to believe.

In fact, Andy and many of his biology friends refused to believe the tale though they enjoyed it down to the last funny, fantastic detail. Andy called the magazine editors to check his suspicions. And he was correct. The delightful account of these midget mammals called snouters was a big joke. Scientists, like everyone else, often enjoy jokes and hoaxes. Once in a while, they like to spoof everybody with a strange tale that sounds oh so correct. Later, when everyone is agog, they confess that they made up the whole outrageous yarn, just to amuse themselves and everyone else.

The snouters were such cute little pixie type fellows that we are sorry they do not exist. Maybe, some day, the experts will discover tiny mammals that are almost, but not quite, like them. Until then, the pigmy shrew holds the title of World's Smallest Mammal. The nervous little creature measures 2 1/2 inches in length, plus a wispy tail of 1 1/2 inches. His total weight is 1/14 of an ounce, which is roughly the weight of a dime.

He is a mousy, sharp nosed creature with tiny pink toes and a brownish fur coat. He " is not a friendly fellow, even with other shrews. But he is a good parent. His wife builds her tiny nest of leafy fragments, often hidden safely under a log. There may be four to ten babies in the litter, not one of them bigger than a bumblebee. A litter of ten newborn pigmy shrews weighs about as much as a teaspoonful of water. The first batch is born in early spring and before the summer season is over, the parents may produce four more litters of the world's smallest mammals.

Shrews have a reputation for being scrappy. They are indeed very brave and bold, always ready to attack a mouse or other animal larger than themselves. Most shrews have poison bearing teeth used to defend themselves and stun their prey. And all shrews are hungry, always hungry. A fidgety shrew needs to eat enough food to equal his weight every three hours. This keeps him busy hunting grasshoppers and other small game. If he does not eat between breakfast and lunch, the little fellow perishes from starvation.