MAMMALS 



the dry patches ot cow-dung in the meadows 

 to feed on the grubs beneath. In some wet 

 swampy meadows near Minsmere sluice, which 

 many years ago were more or less flooded 

 every winter, sometimes as late as March, 

 shrews used to be very numerous. After a 

 sudden rise of water a great many might be 

 seen congregated upon small patches of higher 

 ground. Even where the surface was covered 

 with water they could then be seen running 

 up and down the broken-down stems of 

 reeds and other plants, while at times 

 they seemed to be actually running upon 

 the water, the scum upon the surface 

 with various floating odds and ends which had 

 collected there being buoyant enough in places 

 to support their weight. In these marshes I 

 have found their nests by the sides of ditches ; 

 the occupants on being disturbed taking to 

 the water quite readily, and swimming well. 

 Individuals having white tips to their tails are 

 frequently met with as elsewhere. On 14 

 March 1883 I caught a pied shrew at Farn- 

 ham. A broad band of white almost entirely 

 encircled the body at the loins, the edges being 

 sharply defined. One side of the head and 

 neck was of a silvery grey tint. Specimens 

 having a few scattered white hairs on the 

 forehead are not uncommon. The ravenous and 

 insatiable appetite possessed by both moles 

 and shrews is well known. If a common 

 shrew just caught be held in one hand, and a 

 beetle or woodlouse offered it with the other, 

 it will at once seize and devour it. The 

 writer once placed two of these little animals 

 in a cage with a good supply of worms and 

 insects. The next morning only one CQuld 

 be found, and that dead, the body looking 

 unnaturally distended. After a close search 

 one foot and some of the fur of the other was 

 found. One of these shrews had evidently 

 killed and eaten its companion, paying for this 

 act of cannibalism with its own life. 



II. Pigmy Shrew. Sorex minutus, Falhs. 



Bell — Sorex fygmceus. 



Two skulls of this little animal have been 

 found by the Rev. Francis C. R. Jourdain in 

 owl pellets at Huntingfield, in the eastern 

 part of the county, and one at Great Thur- 

 low in the west, and have been identified by 

 Mr. Lionel E. Adams. On 23 December 

 1892 Mr. F. Norgate of Bury St. Edmunds 

 saw a specimen of S. pygtmeus dive into a narrow 

 crevice three quarters by one quarter of an 

 inch wide between the bricks of his porch 

 floor, and setting a trap close to the spot 

 caught the animal in the following March. I 

 have on several occasions come upon shrews 



of this species, both living and dead, at Blax- 

 hall ; in more than one instance from noticing 

 a cat or kitten playing with one, and do not 

 think it can be very uncommon. Owing to 

 its extremely diminutive size and inconspicuous 

 colour (harmonizing perfectly with the dead 

 leaves, dry sticks, etc., among which it lives), 

 it no doubt often escapes notice. All three of 

 our British shrews are subject to that myster- 

 ious mortality which in the case of S. araneus 

 has so often attracted attention, but never I 

 believe been satisfactorily accounted for. Mr. 

 Edward Bidwell has an albino of this species 

 from Thetford {Trans. Norf. and Nor. Nat. 

 Soc. iii. 667). 



12. Water Shrew. Neomys fodiens, Pallas. 

 Bell — Crossoptts fodiens. 

 This pretty and interesting little animal is 

 widely distributed in the county, though I 

 know of no locality where it can be called 

 abundant. Its habits and the nature of its 

 haunts alike tend to shield it from observation 

 in spite of its rather conspicuous and strongly 

 contrasted colours. In the north-east, towards 

 the Norfolk boundary, its occurrence is re- 

 corded by Mr. Southwell {'Mammalia and 

 Reptilia of Norfolk,' Zool. 187 1, p. 2753), who 

 refers to a specimen from Oulton, Suffolk, 

 seen by Mr. Gurney. At Fritton Decoy 

 Mr. F. Norgate has watched these little 

 animals diving for their prey. The Rev. E. 

 T. Daubeny informs me that he has once or 

 twice observed this species at Market Weston 

 near Thetford. About Wilby the Rev. H. 

 S. Marriott has met with it in some numbers, 

 more particularly in the early spring. The 

 Rev. F. C. R. Jourdain obtained a skull of 

 the water shrew at Huntingfield, near Hales- 

 worth, and another at Great Thurlow in 

 west Suffolk. Both these skulls were taken 

 from pellets of the barn owl {Strix flammea\ 

 and were examined by Mr. Lionel E. Adams. 

 About Needham Market this animal has no( 

 unfrequently been observed by Mr. H. Ling- 

 wood, and the late Dr. Churchill Babington, 

 author of the Birdi of Suffolk, has taken it at 

 Cockfield. In the neighbourhood of Blaxhail 

 it is not uncommon, and the writer has seen 

 it ' fishing ' in a pond surrounded by trees in 

 that parish, and also in a ditch near Dunning- 

 worth Hall, Tunstall. Elsewhere in that 

 district he has occasionally met with examples 

 both living and dead, some of the latter at a 

 distance from water. It has also been ob- 

 served at Leiston. In September 1886 I 

 picked up a dead one at Stratford St. Mary, 

 on the banks of the river Stour, which here 

 forms the southern boundary of the county, 

 and Mr. H. Miller informs me that this 



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