THE WATER SHREW. 143 



after I could not obtain a single specimen. They 

 did not disperse, for the animal is seldom found in 

 the neighbourhood, and no dead bodies were ob- 

 served. They had certainly made this place a tem- 

 porary station in their progress from some other ; 

 but how such large companies can change their 

 situations unobserved in their transits is astonishing. 

 Birds can move in high regions and in obscurity, 

 and are not commonly objects of notice ; but quad- 

 rupeds can travel only on the ground, and would 

 be regarded with wonder, when in great numbers, 

 by the rudest peasant *. 



That little animal the water shrew (sorex fodiens) 

 appears to be but partially known, but is probably 

 more generally diffused than we imagine. The 

 common shrew in particular seasons gambols through 

 our hedgerows, squeaking and rustling about the 

 dry foliage, and is observed by every one ; but the 



* As an event connected with the subject of temporary augmenta- 

 tion and diminution of creatures, I may be pardoned for rioting the 

 predominant increase of sex in some years. The most remarkable 

 instance, that I remember of late, was in 1825. How far it ex- 

 tended I do not know, but for many miles round us we had in that 

 year scarcely any female calves born. Dairies of forty or fifty 

 cows produced not more than five or six, those of inferior numbers, 

 in the same proportion, and the price of female calves for rearing 

 was greatly augmented. In the wild state, an event like this 

 would have considerable influence upon the usual product of some 

 future herd. In the ensuing spring, we had in the village an ex- 

 traordinary instance of fecundity in the sheep afforded us, one 

 farmer having an increase of sixteen lambs from five ewes, four of 

 which produced three each, and one brought forth four j however, 

 only a small portion of these little creatures lived to maturity. 



