The Zoologist — August, 1866. 827 



suspended by the tail. The larvae were obtained at Hyeres on the 21st of March, 

 changed to pupae at Hyeres between the 2nd and 7th of April, and the first imago 

 emerged at Winchelsea on the 6th of June. M. Provencialis appears to be merely a 

 local variety of M. Desfontainesii, or perhaps Provencialis is the type, and Desfon- 

 tainesii the variety." 



With reference to the last remark, Mr. M'Lachlan observed that Melitsea Des- 

 fontainesii was commonly considered to be only a variety of M. Artemis; an opinion 

 in which Mr. Bates said that he concurred. 



New Part of ' Transactions.^ 



A new part of the 'Transactions' (Trans. Ent. Soc, third series, vol. v. part 3), 

 being the third Part published during the present year, was on the table. — /. W. D. 



Note on the Shreiv (Sorex ruslicus?). — I picked up lately, dead, on one of our 

 marsh roads, two shrew-mice, belonging apparently to a distinct species from either 

 the water or oared shrews, as described in Bell's ' British Quadrupeds.' I found the 

 little animals sitting face to face in so perfectly natural a position, that it was only on 

 taking them up I satisfied myself they were really dead. They were both males, full 

 grown and in good condition, except a slight stain of biood on their chests, exhibiting 

 no trace whatever of ill usage. I am quite at a loss to account for their death, and 

 can only conjecture they may have fallen in deadly combat, having fought it out to 

 the hitler end. I find these little quadrupeds exhibit most nearly the characteristics 

 of a shrew described by Mr. Macgillivray,in his ' British Mammalia' (vol. xvii. of the 

 'Naturalist's Library '), and, as he there states, first described by Dr. Fleming in the 

 second volume of the ' Transactions of the Wernerian Society,' under the name of 

 Sorex fodieus, and again in the Appendix to Macgillivray's work they seem identical 

 with the specific characteristics given of the square-tailed shrew {S. tetragonurus), as 

 named by the Kev. L. Jenyns, in his paper on the British shrews, published in the 

 'Annals of Natural History' (vol. i. p. 417). Appended I give their exact measure- 

 ment and specific characteristics, trusting that some reader of the ' Zoologist' will be 

 able to identify and name them for me : — 



Length of shrew from nose to end of tail . . - '^m inches. 



„ body without tail 2J§ „ 



„ tail 1^ inch. 



„ from ear to end of snout to » 



Incisors red at the tip ; fur very close and velvety. Colour above black, below 

 gray, the black colour of the back gradually merging into the gray of the under parts, 

 and not marked by any decided line as in S. fodiens; a dark spot near the centre of 

 the throat, with a streak of the same colour running down the centre of the belly; a 

 dark triangular spot at the base of the tail. Tail quadrangular, slightly compressed 

 towards the lip ; the under parts of the tail covered with very short and close silvery 

 hairs, the sides with short close dark hairs ; the upper part of the tail was entirely 

 destitute of hair, except near the end, where it was covered wilb dark close hairs as on 



