122 The Irish Naturalist. July, 



Britain and Ireland," published in 1904 — " was the first to 

 draw attention to the ancient error, perpetuated through all 

 the text books, that the shrews opened the winter months in 

 profound torpor." Nearly ten 3^ears before the appearance of 

 Mr. Millais's work Mr. Barrett-Hamilton, in a review of 

 Lj'dekker's " British Mammals" in this journal,^ had pointed 

 out that such an opinion was no longer tenable, and that the 

 Lesser Shrew was active during the coldest spells of an Irish 

 winter. The point, however, on which Mr. Adams desires to 

 lay stress is tha: while he has trapped shrews in some 

 numbers during evei}' month of the year (with the apparent 

 exception of March) all those captured by him after Novem- 

 ber, and nearly all those captured after the end of August, 

 have been immature individuals. What becomes of the 

 adults, which thus cease to be taken in the traps from about 

 the time when the " autumnal epidemic " has run its course? 

 The coincidence is, at an}' rate., ver}'- suggestive. Mr. Adams 

 believes that they cease to be trapped for the simple reason 

 that they are all dead. The "autumnal epidemic," he sug- 

 gests, " is due to nothing more tha7i old age ; old age in the case 

 of the Common and the Lesser Shrew bci7ig reached i7i, roughly^ 

 thirtec7i or foiirteeji 7no7iths?^ 



Statistics as to the animals captured and measured are given 

 by Mr. Adams in the form of a table, from which it appears 

 that the period during which adult shrews have been taken in 

 his traps extends from June to November in the case of the 

 Common Shrew, and from Ma}^ to September in the case of 

 the Lesser. He has taken altogether 204 specimens of the 

 former and 40 of the latter specicvS, and the general con- 

 clusions borne out b}' both sets of statistics are identical. 



Mr. Adams's theory has thus the important merit that it 

 makes two sets of facts — otherwise both in need of explanation 

 — mutualh' explain one another. If we reject it we are as far 

 as ever from understanding the autumnal mortality, while on 

 the other hand we find ourselves in need of some alternative 

 explanation of the fresh fact brought forward by Mr. Adams 

 — the disappearance of adult shrews in winter, while im- 

 mature members of both species continue to be taken in the 

 traps. 



^ Irish Naturalist^ vol. iv., 1895, p. 70. 



