128 WATER SHREW. 



to the bank, or swims directly to its hole. Having 

 been found at a considerable distance from water, 

 it is supposed to seek its food occasionally on land. 

 The number of its young is said to be six or eight. 

 The female is somewhat smaller, and of a lighter 

 tint on the upper parts. The length of an indivi- 

 dual, of which the sex was not determined, is five 

 inches and a quarter, the head and body measuring 

 three inches and a quarter, the tail two inches. 



The following very interesting account of its 

 habits is given by Mr Dovaston, in the second 

 volume of the Magazine of Natural History. " On 

 a delicious evening, far in April, 1 825, a little be 

 fore sunset, strolling in my orchard, beside a pool, 

 and looking into the clear water for insects I ex- 

 pected about that time to come out, I was surprised 

 by seeing what I momentarily imagined to be a 

 Dytiscus marginalis, or some very large beetle, dart 

 with rapid motion, and suddenly disappear. Lay- 

 ing myself down cautiously and motionless on the 

 grass, I soon, to my delight and wonder, observed 

 it was a mouse. I repeatedly marked it glide from 

 the bank, under water, and bury itself in the mass 

 of leaves at the bottom : I mean the leaves that had 

 fallen off the trees in autumn, and which lay very 

 thick over the mud. It very shortly returned, and 

 entered the bank, occasionally putting its long sharp 

 nose out of the water, and paddling close to the 

 edge. This it repeated at very frequent intervals, 

 from place to place, seldom going more than two 

 yards from the side, and always returning in about 



