the smaller British Mammalia. 267 



I regret that, when I dissected one of the above specimens, 

 soon after its capture, I did not notice the number of ribs 

 and vertebrae, which might have helped to determine the 

 question. This is a point to which attention should be paid 

 by any naturalist who may be fortunate enough to meet with 

 others. The viscera resembled those of the S. tetragonurus ; 

 the intestinal canal, however, being relatively a trifle longer 

 than in that species, and measuring 10 inches 4 lines, the 

 length of the body being 2 inches 4^ lines, 



1 may just observe, before quitting this species, that the 

 shrew which Mr. Thompson obtained from Ballantrae, and 

 considered as referable to the S. castaneus^, has been kindly 

 submitted to my examination, and proves to be only a pale 

 variety of the S. tetragonurus ; and it is at his own request that 

 I mention this circumstance. In both my specimens of the 

 Chestnut Shrew, the rufous tint, in the recently killed animal, 

 was quite as bright and decided as in the harvest-mouse or 

 squirrel. 



(7.) SoreoD fodiens. — The peculiar form of stomach noticed 

 above in the case of the S. tetragonurus and the S. Hibernicus, 

 is probably to be found in all those shrews having the same 

 type of dentition as those species, and belonging to Duvernoy's 

 subgenus Amphisorea^f. In the ^. fodiens, which has a di- 

 stinct dental formula, and constitutes the subgenus Hydro- 

 soreos of Duvernoy [Crossopus of Wagler), the stomach is of 

 a somewhat globular form, and without any elongation of the 

 pyloric portion whatever. 



In a female specimen of this species, 2 inches 1 1 lines in 

 length, exclusive of the tail, the following internal measure- 

 ments were observed : — 



inches, lines. 

 Diameter of the distended stomach 11 



Distance from the cardiac orifice to pyh)rus 3^ 



Length of the intestinal canal 15 



In another female, exactly of the same length, the intestinal 

 canal was found to be only 12 inches 9 lines, showing that 

 this part is subject to considerable variation in respect to 

 extent. Neither in this, nor in any other species of this 

 genus, is there any caecum, or much distinction between the 

 small and great intestines, the diameter of the canal being 

 nearly everywhere the same. 



The number of ribs in the S. fodiens is 13, 1 less than in 

 the S. tetragonurus ; whereof 7 are true and 6 false. 



* Charlesworth's Mag. of Nat. Hist., vol. iii. p. 585. 

 f Supplement to his first memoir, 1838. 



