I40 



SORICIDyE— NEOMYS 



to human eyes, and follow it up, gradually dispersing to right 

 and left into the perfectly dry fields. 



The Water Shrew has been observed hunting amongst 

 dead leaves in plantations,^ and grubbing in the droppings 

 of horses on a public road,^ as well as in hay- or corn-fields.^ 

 It has been turned out from a snug retreat amongst the 

 roots of an old hedge,* has been found dead on top of a 

 ridge of dry hills, and has been taken in the pantry 

 of a house, in a greenhouse,^ and in a box full of straw 

 in a dry cellar,'' In one instance reported by Mr C. H. B. 

 Grant, one was trapped on ground "like a rock" at a distance 

 of about three miles from any water in the intensely dry heat 

 of August 1899.^ It may even breed at a distance from water, 

 since Mr F. Coburn^ received a nursing female, which had been 

 caught by haymakers near Birmingham on 27th June, in a 

 meadow far from any river or stream. 



Like the other shrews, this species is a kind of omnivorous 

 carnivore, devouring, apparently without fear or favour, all 

 living things of a size and strength inferior to itself. Mr 

 Millais once observed one burrowing like a mole for worms by 

 a streamside, but there can be no doubt that its more ordinary 

 food is found amongst the smaller inhabitants — the crustaceans, 

 molluscs and insects — of the brook or pond. These it hunts 

 with great assiduity, turning over pebbles and poking its nose 

 under larger stones or amongst dead leaves and mud for its 

 prey, which when caught are usually conveyed to the bank or 

 even to the burrow to be devoured. The feeding-place may 

 be indicated by a heap of rejectamenta, as found by Mr W. 

 Jeffery, junior,'* who observed one making a meal of caddis- 



1 W. Webster, junior, Zoologist^ 1848, 2009 ; and H. B. Tristram, Journ. cit., 



1853, 3905- 



2 Sir O. Mosley, Zoologist, 1850, 2697. ^ G. \N oW&y , Journ. cit, 1848, 2289. 

 * J. J. Briggs, Zoologist, 1848, 2280-2281. 



'' Forrest, MS. ; see also James Hardy, Proc. Berwickshire Nat. Club, viii., 527, 



1879. 



" Eliza Brightwen, Wild Nature won by Kindness, ed. 7, 121, etc., 1896. 



"^ Zoologist, 1900, 141 ; see also O. Grabham, Journ. cit., 1900, 186 ; Jenyns, 

 MacGillivray, Evans, Service, etc. 



^ Journ. cit., 1891, 185. Cocks's captive mentioned below on p. 145, produced 

 young immediately after having been caught in a very dry field of clover. 



" Zoologist, 1874, 3829; sXso Journ. cit., 1868, 1254. 



