18 MAMMALIA FEILE. [SoiiEx. 



20. S. fodiens, Gmel. (Water Shrew.) Blackish brown 

 above ; grayish white beneath : tail two-thirds the length of 

 the body : feet and tail strongly ciliated with white hairs. 



S. fodiens, Flem. Brit. An. p. 8. S. Daubentonii, Desm. Mammal. 

 p. 150. Water Shrew, Penn. Brit. Zool. vol. i. p. 126. pi. 11. no. 33. 

 Don. Brit. Quad. pi. 6. 



DIMENS. Length of the head and body three inches two lines ; of the 

 head one inch ; of the ears two lines ; of the tail two inches. 



DESCRIPT. Upper parts deep brown, approaching to black; under 

 parts pale ash gray, in some individuals silvery white; in general the 

 two colours separated by a well-defined line ; a triangular dusky spot on 

 the anus : snout long, somewhat depressed, emarginated at the extremity : 

 whiskers long: eyes small, almost concealed: ears very short, not pro- 

 jecting above the fur, furnished internally with three valves or lobes, on 

 one of which is a tuft of white hair, giving the effect of a white spot upon 

 the auricle : intermediate incisor teeth with the tips ferruginous : tail 

 more slender than in the last species, quadrangular throughout the greater 

 part of its extent, the extreme tip being flattened ; dusky, with a cilium 

 of white hairs along its under surface: feet dusky; the toes fringed 

 with white hairs. Weight three drachms. Obs. English authors do 

 not quite agree in their descriptions of this animal, from which circum- 

 stance it would seem that it is either subject to much variation, or that 

 there is some other indigenous species with which it has been confounded. 



Not uncommon in many parts of the country, inhabiting marshy dis- 

 tricts. Swims and dives with great facility. Preys on insects : is also 

 said to attack frogs. Produces in the Spring from six to eight young. 



21. S. remifer , Geoff. ? (Oared Shrew.) Black above; 

 scarcely paler beneath ; throat brownish ash : tail quadran- 

 gular at the base, flattened at the extremity, and, as well as 

 the feet, ciliated. 



S. remifer, Geoff. Ann. du Mus. torn. xvn. p. 182. pi. 2. f. 1 ? Desm. 

 Mammal, p. 152 ? Yarr. in Loud. Mag. of Nat. Hist. vol. v. p. 598. 

 S. ciliatus, Sow. Brit. Misc. pi. 49. 



DIMENS. Length of the head and body three inches two lines ; of the 

 head one inch ; of the ears two lines ; of the tail two inches one line ; of 

 the fore foot five lines ; of the hind foot eight lines and a half. 



DESCRIPT. Body more thick and bulky for its length than in the last 

 species : snout broad, and rather obtuse : feet and tail ciliated ; the latter 

 distinctly quadrangular for two-thirds of its length, compressed towards 

 the tip, where the hairs of the cilium become longer. Colour darker, and 

 more uniform than that of the S. fodiens ; all the upper parts, sides of 

 the abdomen, and region of the pubes, black ; throat, breast, and middle 

 of the abdomen, dusky ash, with a faint tinge of yellowish ; sometimes, 

 but not always, a white spot on the ears; incisors ferruginous at their 

 extremities ; feet and tail dusky gray, the latter with the cilium of hairs 

 underneath of the same colour as above. Weight three drachms fifty - 

 one grains. 



This species, which has been taken in Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, and 

 Surrey, as well as in Scotland, appears to be identical with a foreign one 

 in the British Museum, ticketed <S. remifer: nevertheless I feel some 



