THE WATER SHREW 133 



the tip of the first digit reaches about to the base of the second, the fifth 

 well beyond the base of the fourth. In the foot the tips of the first and fifth 

 digits reach about half-way to the tips of the second and fourth respectively. 



The fur is even more beautiful and abundant than that of the 

 Common Shrew ; it varies in length from about 4 mm. in summer to 

 7 in winter, and in the young possesses an iridescence lost in the adult 

 (English), The colour of the hidden basal portions of the hairs is 

 " blackish slate " above, paler and approaching " plumbeous " below. 



The animal is in its typical form very distinctly bicoloured, the 

 colour of the upper side at all seasons varying from " blackish slate," or 

 " slate black," to deep brown of quite irregular intensity ; that of the 

 under side running from dirty white or cream to some shade of " olive- 

 gray" or " smoke gray," The two areas are sharply divided by a distinct 

 line of demarcation, which runs on each side from a point just behind 

 the nostrils to the shoulder, and thence along the flanks to the wrists, 

 ankles, and base of the tail. The tail is " hair brown " above ; below, 

 including the component hairs of the keel, whitish. The foot is also 

 hair brown, the skin of the upper surface finely mottled in dusky and 

 lighter colours, and the fringing hairs most typically, but not invariably,; 

 whitish. There is frequently a tuft of whitish hairs arising from a 

 valve above the antitragus, or from the edge of the conch (Plate VI., 

 Fig. 3). Writing in the Zoologist for 1893, 302-303, Stott described 

 the eye of a fresh specimen as " blue, and small." 



The moults appear to be effected in a similar way to those of Sorex^ 

 and Adams has sent me several specimens clearly undergoing a change 

 of their coat in September, so that there is certainly an autumn moult. 

 The keel and swimming-fringes are changed with the rest of the hairs 

 in summer or autumn, at which time, accordingly, errors in identifica- 

 tion are liable to occur. The moults are probably not so irregular as in 

 the short-lived members of the genus Sorex, in which Adams believes 

 that no individual survives to effect a second autumnal moult, nor 

 changes its pelt more than twice during its life, so that the dependence 

 of these two changes upon the age of the individual would account 

 for much irregularity. The young Neomys is at first without a keel, 

 which makes its first appearance at the base of the tail. 



Individual variation is frequent, tending largely to melanism, in 

 the extreme case of which there is no line of demarcation and the 

 whole under side may be dusky or " hair brown." Many specimens are 

 strongly washed with yellowish or ferruginous tints beneath ; in others 

 there is a dusky band across the throat or a thick line of the same 

 colour in the mid-ventral region. There may be indications of a brown 

 flank-band between the blackish and whitish hues of upper and under 

 sides (Cocks). Adams finds that in melanic specimens the keel and foot 

 fringe are more prominent than in the bicoloured type. 



