122 SORICID^— SOREX 



It seems clear also that the creatures preyed upon by the 

 Pygmy Shrew are, owing to its puny size, necessarily smaller 

 and weaker than those attacked by the Common Shrew. But 

 it is a bold forager, and according to Professor Collett, in 

 Norway it sometimes searches out the nests of ground- wasps 

 and devours the larvae. If its appetite throughout the winter 

 is such as the behaviour of my own captive would suggest, I am 

 filled with wonder to know how it can obtain food in sufficient 

 quantities. 



The same idea occurring to Dr C. Hart Merriam^ (in 

 regard, of course, to the North American sub-species), made 

 him conclude, although without direct evidence, that the "diet 

 is more comprehensive than most writers suppose, and that 

 they feed upon beechnuts and a variety of seeds,^ and possibly 

 roots as well." Of three which he placed together, "in less 

 than eight hours one of these tiny beasts had attacked, over- 

 come, and ravenously consumed two of its own species, each 

 as large and heavy as itself." 



My own experience of trapping the Pygmy Shrew is that it 

 is unevenly distributed, as it comes to traps in a very uncertain 

 manner. Mr Kinnear, trapping not far from where Alston in 

 1867 caught several, has never obtained one. Perhaps it is 

 scattered over the country in small colonies, after the fashion 

 of the Water Shrew, and this may account for the fact that, 

 while in one locality it is accounted rare, in another it is 

 abundant. There is, for instance, a dry roadside bank by a 

 plantation in the county Wexford, overgrown with whitethorns, 

 but bare of under-cover, where several were easily caught, 

 while in other situations of like appearance not one could 

 be secured. Similarly, in Germany, during six weeks spent in 

 trapping small mammals on the outskirts of Querum Forest, 

 Brunswick, I never met with a sign of this species until' my 

 last day, and then I was rewarded with two, the one caught 

 on the edge of the wood, the other in a grass run in a field 

 just outside. 



A point to which Mr C. B. Moffat has drawn attention is 

 ihat, although it is in Ireland free from the competition of 



1 Vertebrates of the Adirondack Region^ i., ^t-^^. 



- The Pygmy will come to a bait of cheese (Forrest, MS.). 



