100 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Socvety. 
County,” Appendix, p. 38), says: “This animal was formerly 
rare in Angusshire, but of late years it has appeared in 
tolerable plenty.” From personal inquiries made in different 
parts of the counties of Fife, and Perth as far north as the 
entrance to the Highlands, I learn that it is common through- 
out these districts, and none of my correspondents can 
remember when it was otherwise. Mr Keay, gamekeeper, 
Murthly, can speak from his own knowledge to its abundance 
in that neighbourhood for over forty years. Sixty-three years 
ago, the limit set by Fleming to its northern distribution in 
Britain was the Moray Firth (“ British Animals,” p. 8). 
SoREX VULGARIS ZL. COMMON SHREW. 
Very abundant and apparently universally distributed in 
the district, expresses no more than the bare truth with 
regard to this species. Though so common, comparatively 
few people would be aware of its presence but for the feeble 
cheep and rustle in the grass, and the occasional dead body 
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, 
