ANNALS OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



XLV. — Farther remarks on the British Shrews, including the 

 distinguishing Characters of two Species previously con- 

 founded. By the Rev. Leonard Jenyns, M.A., F.L.S., 

 &c. 



IN a paper published in 1837 in the c Magazine of Zoology 

 and Botany/* I endeavoured to prove that the Sorex Araneus 

 and the S.fodiens of English authors were not respectively 

 identical with the two species so called on the continent. The 

 former I referred to the S. tetragonurus of Hermann ; and I 

 added the descriptions of what I considered to be two remark- 

 able varieties of that species, which I represented as very va- 

 riable in its characters. Further attention to the subject has, 

 however, convinced me of an error with regard to one of these 

 supposed varieties, which I am anxious to correct. I allude 

 to the large specimens, found in marshy districts, described 

 as var. 1 in that paper, of which I have since obtained indi- 

 viduals of all ages, and in sufficient number to establish be- 

 yond a doubt that they are perfectly distinct from the smaller, 

 though hardly perhaps more common, species, which is found 

 in many situations, and which seems to be the one most ge- 

 nerally, if not exclusively alluded to, in the works of British 

 zoologists. 



It will be my object in this paper, first, to point out the 

 distinguishing characters of these two shrews ; secondly, to 

 make some remarks upon their nomenclature, which will re- 

 quire correction, as well as upon the nomenclature of S.fodiens 

 and S. remifer ; and thirdly, to give a synoptic view of all 

 the species of Sorex hitherto met with in Great Britain, with 

 their essential characters and principal synonyms, so far as 

 these last can be determined. I conceive that this synopsis, 

 which will include the characters of the genus, as well as those 

 of its subordinate divisions, will not be unacceptable to those 



* Vol. ii. p. 24. 

 Am. Nat. Hist. Vol. 1. No. 6. August 1838. 2e 



