598 Additions to the British Mammalia. 



Art. II. Additions to the British Fauna ; Class, MammMia. 

 By William Yarrell, Esq. F.L. and Z.S. 



Having devoted a portion of my leisure, during the last 

 winter, to a close examination of all the recent specimens I 

 could obtain, from various localities, of the smaller-sized 

 British Mammalia, I have been amply repaid the trouble of 

 the investigation, by discovering two species, neither of which 

 have as yet been admitted in any British fauna. 



The first of these is a ,Sorex well known to Continental 

 naturalists, whose remarks and descriptions I shall have 

 occasion to refer to. The second is a species of Arvicola, 

 probably hitherto confounded with the Mvts agrestis of Ray, 

 which appears to be identical with the Mas agrestis of Lin- 

 naeus, and also with the Mus arvalis of Pallas : but the little 

 animal to which I now solicit attention, I have no doubt I 

 shall be able to prove to be perfectly distinct, and deserving a 

 place, as a true species, in the catalogues of systematic authors. 

 The Oared Shrew (5'o^rex re'mifer). 



This species is at once distinguished from our more com- 

 mon water shrew, S. fodiens, by its uniform colour. The 

 whole of the upper part of the head, the body, and sides, are 

 velvet black ; the situation of the ear is marked by a tuft of 

 white hairs, more conspicuous than in the water shrew, from 

 the greater contrast of colour ; under the lower jaw a small 

 patch of light brown ; under surface of the body rusty black; 

 tail black, but with a line of pendent greyish white hairs along 

 its under surface ; feet and toes ciliated. 



This *S5rex is stated by Geoffroy in the Ann. Mus., and 

 by Desmarest in his Mammalogie, to be the largest of the 

 shrews found in France; and its measurements are stated 

 by Desmarest to be ; — length of head and body equal to 

 4 in. 3 lines English, the tail 2 in. 9 lines. My specimen of 

 this shrew, which was caught in a ditch in Battersea Fields, 

 measures in the extent of head and body but 3 in. 4 lines ; 

 the tail 1 in. 9 lines. This difference in relative size might 

 create doubt that my specimen was the real /Sorex remifer. 

 There is, however, in the collection at the British Museum, 

 an example of this shrew, obtained from Mon. Baillon, the 

 celebrated naturalist of Abbeville, and labelled by him as a 

 specimen of the S. remifer, the true Miisaraigne port-rame of 

 French authors. With this preserved specimen I have been 

 very kindly permitted to compare my own shrew, in hand, 

 side by side ; and they agree in every particular, of colour, 

 markings, and measurement, and are, in fact, perfectl}^ iden- 

 tical. 1 have as yet obtained but one specimen of this shrew; 

 but it is probable that the 5orex ciliatus of Sowerby's Brit. 



