THE WATER SHREW 71 



Clarke, and recorded in Annals of Scottish 

 Natural History for April, 1909. 2000 feet 

 seems rather a terrible journey for such tiny legs 

 and feet ! 



We come now to the last pair of the little 

 denizens of our case, the quaintest and perhaps 

 most interesting of all, and, judging from ex- 

 perience of visitors, certainly the least known. 

 These are the little animals in ' black and white 

 velvet ' first mentioned the water shrew, Cros- 

 sopus fodiens. First recorded as an addition to 

 our Scottish fauna by the late Dr. Scoular, who 

 found it near Glasgow, 1 it is not uncommon as far 

 north as Sutherland, Caithness and Orkney ; but 

 although reported from Arran it has not been 

 observed in our Western Islands, nor in Ireland. 



This is a larger animal than the common 

 shrew, black or brownish-black above, with the 

 under parts white, the black 'and the white 

 meeting in a distinct line along each side ; the 

 tail is somewhat compressed, with stiff whitish 

 hairs, the toes fringed in like manner. Living 

 by streams and ditches, the water shrew is as 

 much at home in and beneath the water as on 

 land, diving and swimming after its food, con- 

 sisting of every kind of larvae and insect, fish- 

 spawn and small fish. They eat any kind of 



1 Mag. Natural History, VI. p. 512. 



