138 SORICID.E— NEOMYS 



plunge in again. . . . When under water he looks grey, on 

 account of the pearly cluster of minute air-bubbles that adhere 

 to his fur, and bespangle him all over." 



Although Dovaston's essay undoubtedly deserves the com- 

 mendation with which it has been received, J. S. Knapp's 

 treatment of the same subject, published at about the same 

 date as Dovaston's, is also worthy of praise.^ Since that date, 

 many naturalists have repeated or amplified the story, and the 

 work of MacGillivray, J. G. Wood, Mr W. Hodgson,' and Mr 

 W. Evans ^ are particularly to be commended. The two latter 

 naturalists have especially noticed the buoyancy of water shrews, 

 and their playfulness both in the water and on land. "When 

 the sun shone out brightly," wrote Mr Hodgson, "their glossy 

 submerged coats glistened like frosted silver. . . . Their watery 

 gambols strikingly reminded the spectator of those of a brood of 

 ducklings at play." Quite recently Mr J. G. Millais has waxed 

 eloquent over this wonderful activity, and has figured one in the 

 act of leaping clear of the water in a surprising, fish-like manner. 

 He regards "the habit of making big bounds" as especially 

 characteristic of the animal, which, indeed, not unfrequently 

 indulges in them when surprised ashore, setting off "towards 

 the river or pond with immense leaps through the grass, which 

 if the animal were of the size of the spring-buck would be among 

 the marvels of animal progression." 



The Water Shrew is not by any means a rare animal, but 

 it would appear to be of local distribution. Since the introduc- 

 tion of improved methods of trapping small mammals it often 

 falls a victim, taking freely almost any bait if placed in localities 

 where it occurs. Sometimes it may be caught in an unbaited 

 cyclone trap placed on the bottom of a stream on the chance of 

 its trying to pass through it. 



It swims principally by the alternate action of both pairs of 

 feet or by flexions of the whole body, which produce an unequal 

 or wriggling motion. The head is slightly raised above the 

 surface, says Mr Douglas English,* and three-quarters of the 



^ Journal of a Naturalist, ed. 2, 143, etc., 1829. 



2 Trans. Cutnberlafid and Westmorlaftd Assoc, xi., 38-39, 1886. 



3 See also V. Wa\m&s\ty, Zoologist, 1844, 428-429; and C. E. Sioii, Jourfi. cit., 

 1893, 302. 



* Some Smaller British Mammals^ undated, 'j'})' 



