2 Adams, Epidemic of the Coninwn and Lesser Shrew. 



drought has no effect on shrews generally, and Mr. 

 Millais writing to me on the subject says : " I have 

 always thought that drought (creating absence of food 

 necessary to shrews) was often the cause of the mortality." 

 Such droughts, however, are only occasional and cannot 

 be the cause of the persistent annual mortality. 



I have made innumerable post-mortems of corpses 

 found, and have often detected a wound, but in many 

 cases I could find nothing to account for death, all the 

 organs being apparently healthy. 



It has been suggested that the corpses are those of 

 animals killed and left uneaten, but if this were the case 

 the killing would not take place in autumn more than at 

 any other season, and wounds would usually be in evidence. 

 So far as I know the wild animals which kill them also eat 

 them, and perhaps owls account for the greatest numbers 

 In a thousand pellets of the Brown Owl I found remains 

 of 344 Common Shrews, 27 Lesser Shrews, and 21 Water 

 Shrews, besides, of course, a multitude of mice, voles, 

 &c.* Kestrels eat shrews readily. Our tame Magpie 

 will eat shrews greedily if freshly killed, though it will 

 not touch them if dead more than a few hours, and it has 

 occurred to me that other scavengers find shrews — which 

 become terribly putrid in a comparatively short time — 

 too gamey for their tastes, and hence the numbers of 

 dead ones found. I have often seen Weasels carrying off 

 dead shrews across the country roads, and Mr. C. Oldham 

 informs me that he has found a dead Lesser Shrew in a 

 Weasel's nest. 



Hedgehogs and Moles would probably eat them if 

 they could catch them, and when they find them freshly 

 dead ; and I have heard of them being found in the 



* Details may be found in "A Plea for Owls and Kestrels": /outnal o; 

 the Northampton Nat. Hist. Soc, June, 1898. 



