260 Wild Life in Wales 



poor Little Shrew. 1 On the other hand, I have frequently 

 taken skulls of Shrews from the castings of Kestrels, Barn- 

 and Brown-Owls, and once found a newly killed Water 

 Shrew in the nest of a Long-eared Owl. From the castings 

 of a White Owl, picked up one day near Llanuwchllyn, I 

 unearthed five skulls of the common Shrew. I have seen a 

 Weasel seize and carry off a Shrew, but whether or not it was 

 eaten, there was no means of telling. The only occasion on 

 which I tried a Ferret with one (it was a Water Shrew of 

 the dull brown variety), it was devoured with apparent 

 relish, although at the time the Ferret was not particularly 

 hungry. A cat I have likewise seen eat a Shrew, though, 

 more often, these dainty occupants of the hearth-rug will 

 refuse them. 



I once chanced to see a Water Shrew, of the Oared type, 

 turned up in the middle of a stubble field by a ploughshare, 

 in April ; and, though quite uninjured, it seemed to be so 

 dazed by its sudden transference to daylight from darkness, 

 that it ran blindly about, and was easily captured. It had, 

 apparently, been asleep in a side chamber excavated off a 

 main run, which looked like the work of a mole. None of 

 the Shrews, however, seem to make any attempt at hiberna- 

 tion, for I have seen them about at all seasons, even during 

 hard frosts when the ground was covered with snow, and 

 have frequently found their runs excavated beneath the 

 snow, when it had lain for some time. The brown type of 

 the Water Shrew seems to be much more numerous, in 

 many parts of the country, than the more handsome black- 

 and-white form, and to be much more prone to turn up in 

 outhouses, and such places. Some specimens are scarcely 

 distinguishable, in colour, from the common Shrew, and from 

 that mousy hue they vary through all shades of brown, up 

 to black. The darker the back, the paler, as a rule, are the 

 under parts, and the more decided the dividing line between 

 the colours. I have seen brown individuals smoky white 

 underneath, but never with the under parts so pure white, 



1 Sorex mtnutus, the only example of this, the smallest British mammal, 

 seen at Llanuwchllyn ; but as no trapping was resorted to, it was not very 

 likely to come in my way, and may not be rare. 



