Rev. L. Jenyns on the British Shrews, ^ 



VI. — Additional Note on the British Shrews. By the Rev. 



L. Jenyns, M.A., F.L.S., &c. 

 Since the pubheation of my last memoir I have seen a third 

 specimen of the Chestnut shrew in the museum of the Zoolo- 

 gical Society ; and on comparing it with my own, I find it so 

 exactly similar, both in form and colours, with the sole ex- 

 ception of these last being somewhat paler, as to remove all 

 doubt in ray mind of its being a distinct species from the So- 

 rex tetragonurus. The following may serve as the distin- 

 guishing characters of these two shrews : — 



1. S. tetragonurus, Herm. {Square-tailed Shrew.) — Snout 

 broad, compared with that of the common shrew: feet, fore espe- 

 cially, much larger: tail slender, more quadrangular at all ages, 

 and sUghtly attenuated at the tip ; clothed with closely-ap- 

 pressed hairs in the young state, in age nearly naked : upper 

 parts very deep reddish brown; under parts dark yellowish grey. 



2. S. castanev^, Jen. {Chestnut Shrew.) — Snout and feet 

 much as in the last species, but the former rather more atte- 

 nuated : tail moderately stout, nearly round, well clothed with 

 hairs, which form at the extremity a long pencil; upper 

 parts, as well as the snout, feet and tail, bright chestnut ; un- 

 der parts ash-grey. 



The specimen of this shrew in the Museum of the Zoological 

 Society is a female,not yet arrived at full size. The length of the 

 head and body is 2 in. 1^ lin. That of the tail, 1 in. 7i lin. 



With regard to the error* of my considering the British 

 water-shrew as distinct from the S. fodiens of the continent, 

 I may observe that it has been already in part corrected in my 

 last memoir, wherein I stated that further investigation had 

 led me to believe that it was the real S. fodiens of Gmelin, as 

 well as of Bechstein, Brehm, and Wagler. If it be also the S. 

 fodiens oi'Dviwexnoy ,t\ie error of regarding them as distinct has 

 originated, not with me, but with the author just mentioned, 

 who must have assigned a wrong type of dentition to his own 

 species. And such, from the statement of Nathusius quoted 

 by the editor in the last number, would seem to be the case. 

 Swaffham Bulbeck, July 31, 1838. 



* Alluded to by Nathusius in his memoir on the European shrews, accord- 

 ing to the Editor of this Magazine, to whom I am indebted for drawing my 

 attention to the circumstance. See the last niunber of the Annals, i. 427. 



