xvi TOPSELL ON THE SHREW 5 I 9 



upper canine may not be a fourth incisor, and whether the 

 first premolar may not be really the canine. Another peculiar 

 feature about the dentition of Sorex is the suppression of the teeth of 

 the milk dentition, which are functionless, and probably uncalcified. 

 The genus Sorex is terrestrial. The tail is long and covered with 

 hairs. There are two species in this country, S. vulgaris and 8. 

 minutus. The former is the Shrew of legend and superstition ; 

 and it is no doubt the species that has lent its name to the more 

 untameable members of the softer sex, though it is the males 

 which are especially pugnacious. As to legend, everybody has 

 heard of the shrew ash whose leaves, after a Shrew has been 

 inserted living into a hole cleft in the tree, are a specific for 

 diseases of cattle, caused by the Shrew itself creeping over 

 them. 



The Eev. Edward Topsell, author of The Historie of Four- 

 footed Beastes, who defends his veracity by asserting that he does 

 not write " for the rude and vulgar sort, who being utterly 

 ignorant of the operation of learning, do presently condemne al 

 strange things," says of the Shrew that " it is a ravening beast, 

 feigning itself gentle and tame, but, being touched, it biteth deep 

 and poysoneth deadly. It bearetli a cruel minde, desiring to hurt 

 anything, 'neither is there any creature that it loveth, or it loveth 

 him, because it is feared of all." It is probable that all this 

 rustic feeling is due to the powerful effluvium which the Shrew 

 undoubtedly emits. 



S. minutus has the distinction of being the smallest British 

 mammal ; it is scarcer than the last. This form is found upon 

 the Alps, as is also the peculiarly Alpine species S. alpinus, which 

 inhabits the Alps, Pyrenees, Carpathians, and the Hartz. 



Crossopus fodiens, the Water Shrew, has also brown-stained 

 teeth. - It is not uncommon in this country, and lives in burrows 

 excavated by the sides of the streams which it affects. 



Besides these two genera, Soriculus, Blarina, and Notiosorex 

 have red-tipped teeth. In Crocidura, Myosorex, Diplomesodon, 

 Anurosorex, Chimarrogale, and Nectogale the teeth are white- 

 tipped. These are all the genera of the family allowed by the 

 late Dr. Dobson in a review of that family. 1 



Chimarrogale and Nectogale are aquatic genera. The former 



1 "A Synopsis of the Genera of the Family Soricidae," Proc. Zool. Soc. 1890, 

 p. 49. 



