COMMON SHREW 27 



on the pathway, so seldom does the tiny creature expose his 

 velvet coat to view. These indications of the animal's 

 presence, however, scarcely give an adequate idea of its 

 abundance, and it is only after we have had recourse to 

 trapping for a time that this is fully realised. Wherever my 

 traps have been set, from the vicinity of the seashore to 

 the midst of the hills — whether by a stream, a hedge-bottom, 

 or under a whin-bush ; in a plantation, a garden, or an upland 

 pasture — the Common Shrew has invariably been one of the 

 first and most frequent captures. On the furze-clad slopes of 

 the Braid Hills they are a perfect pest, continually occupying 

 the traps to the exclusion of better things. In the heart of 

 the Pentlands, too, near Loganlee, they have more than once 

 frustrated my endeavours to obtain other kinds ; and Mr 

 Bruce, gardener, Colinton House, to whom I am indebted for 

 examples of most of our smaller mammals, takes large 

 numbers in and about the garden there. Correspondents in 

 East Lothian, Peeblesshire, Linlithgowshire, and Fife, have 

 had no difficulty in procuring me specimens. No better 

 time for trapping them can be selected than during winter, 

 especially when there is frost and a sprinkling of snow on 

 the ground ; and I have captured them in the daytime as 

 readily as at night. Though probably most active towards 

 evening and after nightfall, the Shrews cannot properly be 

 regarded as nocturnal animals, nor do they appear to hibernate 

 even partially. 



LESSER SHREW. 



SOREX MINUTUS Z. = SOREX PYGM^US Pall. 



The authors of the last edition of Bell's " British Quadru- 

 peds " (1872) were disposed to regard the Lesser Shrew as 

 srenerallv distributed in Scotland ; V>nf while the correctness 



