lo Adams, Epidemic of tiic Comiiion and Lesser SJircw. 



measuring the head-and-body, — one stretching the speci- 

 mens more or less than another in the process. 



I do not understand the low average of the Common 

 Shrew as shown by the Chart for February, nor the rise 

 in the average of both species in October, but probably 

 if my series were large enough to be representative and 

 taken from specimens from all parts of the country, this 

 irregularity would be smoothed away ; it may be that in 

 the district where I have trapped I happen to have taken 

 older individuals in January than in February, the older 

 and stronger securing the food before the younger, and so 

 getting trapped first. 



But in considering the Chart with reference to the 

 autumn mortality the most important point is the decrease 

 in size as the breeding season progresses. Of course it is 

 not to be supposed that the individuals actually diminish 

 in length towards the end of the year, and it is plain that 

 this decrease can only be accounted for by the fact that 

 the young ones predominate more and more while the 

 parent generation becomes less and less, until by its 

 extinction the average is brought down to the level of the 

 adolescents. 



Further consideration of the Table (Column 3, 

 Common Shrew), shows that the proportion of adults does 

 dwindle as the breeding season progresses ; the actual 

 numbers of adults, 13, 10, 6, o, 2, l are easily replaced by 

 their representative percentages, viz., 61, 45, 31,0, ii, :^. 

 In the case of the Lesser Shrew, the material is hardly 

 sufificient to be worth considering. Though, so far as it 

 goes, it bears out the statement. 



It must be admitted, indeed, that the whole number 

 of examples collated is insufficient for a positive general- 

 isation, but, on the other hand, it will be noticed that the 

 chart lines of the two species run almost parallel, rising 



