THE SECOND WINTER MEETING. XXvii. 



The CHAIRMAN, however, observed that, beyond a few Greek words, there did 

 not seem to be much trace of Greek art in the coins. 



Colonel MAINWARING replied by pointing out what he considered to be a 

 decidedly Greek head. 



BY MR. NELSON M. EICHARDSON : 



A specimen of the Sorcx minutus, the lesser or pygmy shrew, a species new to 

 the county of Dorset. 



Mr. EICHARDSON said " I was interested to find from Mr. C. W. Dale's paper 

 on Dorset Mammalia, read to the Club some time ago, that the Lesser Shrew 

 Sorcx minutus (or pygmceus) had not, as far as he knew, been recorded from 

 Dorset. I now exhibit Dorset specimens, one of which (which I have pleasure in 

 presenting to the Museum) has been authenticated by our eminent hon. member, 

 Mr. R. Lydekker, F.R.S., to whom I sent it lately to make quite sure that I was 

 correct in my naming, as these shrews are not always very easy to identify with 

 certainty. Specimens of this species and other shrews and mice have been 

 brought into my house by cats from my garden at Chickerell, and I am not 

 aware of any other Dorset locality, though it is unlikely that this is, like the 

 moth Ncpticula auromarginella, confined to this parish. The latter, I may 

 remark, lias not yet been found anywhere else in the world, though it is now 

 more than 15 years since I discovered it. Lydekker says, in Eoyal Nat. Hist., 

 Vol. I., p. 326, "In Ireland the place of the Common Shrew is taken by the 

 Lesser Shrew ( Sorcx pygmceus), which, although also found in England, is ther 

 much more rare. It may be distinguished by its inferior size, and also by the 

 circumstance that the third tooth from the extremity of the upper jaw (the third 

 incisor) is not longer than the fourth. Like its larger cousin, this species has an 

 extensive range in Europe and Asia north of the Himalaya, but does not extend 

 across Behring Strait into America." I exhibit also a specimen of the water 

 shrew and one of the Common Shrew, both from Chickerell." 



Papers were then read as follow : 



i. "Barrow Exploration at Martinstown," by Mr. Charles S. 

 Prideaux. (To be printed.) 



On the conclusion of the paper, the HON. SEC. complimented 

 Mr. Prideaux on the way in which the investigation had been 

 carried out and the most careful manner in which the discoveries 

 had been made and preserved. In the course of his remarks on 

 the ''find" he said one looked with dismay at the diminishing 

 number of barrows still remaining for investigation, because 

 they owed something to posterity. Those who came after the 

 present generation might have most important archaeological 

 problems to solve that could be solved probably only by the 



