340 WILD LIFE ON A NORFOLK ESTUARY 



crabs into the place having ferreted them out from under 

 stones and refuse, when the tide has fallen and by devour- 

 ing them, leaving little piles of broken shells to mark the 

 spot where they have their suppers. I have had occasion- 

 ally to shovel out the debris. Now and again they bring in 

 fish-offal and other queer viands, never troubling to cast 

 away the remnants, which produce at times, especially after 

 a higher tide than usual, a strange and powerful odour. 



CURIOUS CATS' FEET 



For some years past I have known of certain domestic 

 cats in Yarmouth remarkable for the unusual number of 

 toes upon the fore-feet. From observations I have made, and 

 the particular neighbourhood in which these felines live, I 

 am strongly inclined to believe that they are all more or less 

 related. To some one's great regret, no doubt, a friend of 

 mine secured one of these animals (its colour shall be name- 

 less), which he informed me died rather suddenly soon after ; 

 and there was a black specimen, he believed unrelated, 

 which he intended to capture at the same time ; but it gave 

 him the slip, and has never been heard of since. He cut off 

 the fore-feet of the cat that "died," and kindly furnished me 

 with an exceedingly good photograph 1 of them. The left foot 

 had seven digits, the right one six thirteen in all, a rather 

 " unlucky number " for Tabby. In every other instance, as 

 well as in the present one, the cat's hind-feet contained the 

 normal number of toes. 



THE PIGMY SHREW 



The pigmy shrew {Sorex minutus) appears to be common 

 in the neighbourhood of St. Olaves, a few miles from Yar- 

 mouth, and is found in the marshy districts nearer home. 

 The first example that came to my notice was a rather 

 badly-mauled little chap in a bottle of spirits, which my 

 friend Mr. P. E. Rumbelow had taken from a cat, not the 



1 This photograph was reproduced in the Zoologist ', 1905, p. 462. 



