386 The Zoologist— Septembeb, 1866. 



Mr. Watson told me that tliey had been made by rats. Finding, no doubt, some diffi- 

 culty allendiug the sucking of an egg with one hole only, the cunning depredator had 

 had resort lo two holes. Another similar instance took place here about two years ago, 

 but I cannot be certain as to whether mice or rats were the thieves. I should incline, 

 however, to the belief that mice more generally do so ihan rats, as one would suppose 

 that rats could get more easily at the contents by simply breaking the shell, whereas 

 mice would find more difficulty in doing so from their smaller proportions. — /. A. 

 Harvie Brown; Dunipace House, Falkirk, August 3, 1866. 



Description of a Shreiv Mouse. — The specimen described below was taken alive, 

 and apparently uninjured, at Leominster, on the 6th of August. It will be seen that 

 it differs in some few particulars from any previously described. 



Extreme length from lip of nozzle to lip of tail . . 5 inches. 



From lip of nozzle lo end of snout .... '5 inch. 



„ „ eyes .... -575 inch, 



„ „ ears .... 1 inch. 



„ „ insertion of tail .... 3 inches. 



Length of tail 2 „ 



i&ar« funnel-shaped, very thin, almost diaphanous, emitting a small acutely pointed 

 lobe directed towards the crown of the head, and having a slight notch opposite this 

 lobe : ihe ears are delicately while inside, and are fringed with snow-white hairs : no 

 part of ihe ear projects visibly beyond the surface of the surrounding fur. 



Eyes very small, black, each having an indistinct white patch composed of a few 

 hairs behind and above it, conveying the idea of a while eyebrow. 



Nozzle naked, deeply notched in the middle and projecting on the sides; nostrils 

 large, opening laterally and outwardly, bordered posteriorly by naked skin : snout very 

 long, attenuated towards the nozzle, and restricted before the eyes, and sparingly 

 clothed above with short hairs, which are smoke-coloured, excepting a very slender 

 median white stripe; the skin, of a smoky flesh-colour, shows through this sparse 

 clothing of hair: the snout also emits a number of stout lateral bristles, most of which 

 are black, but some few silvery white ; these bristles are regularly graduated in length, 

 increasing from the nozzle to the eyes, and each is slightly bent outward and 

 forward. 



Upper surface of the head, neck, back and tail glossy, smoky black. 



Under surface smuky white, except round the anus, where the fur is dark smoke- 

 colour: the division between the dorsal and ventral areas is clearly defined, the darker 

 colour of the dorsal area descending into the legs: tarsi smoke-colour; feel and toes 

 silvery. 



Tail somewhat quadrangular, except towards the tip, where it is laterally com- 

 pressed ; the tail, feet and toes appear as if covered with small scales beneath the hairs, 

 as in the musk rat; tail sparsely clothed with smoke-coloured hairs, and having 

 beneath a slender median keel of pale hairs. 



Doubtless some of these characters are common to all the species, but others 

 appear to me to be new or to have escaped notice. — Edward Newman. 



Spider or Mouse. — ^' He (a young hippopotamus) was scored all over by the tusks 

 of some other hippopotamus that had been bullying him. Some of the men declared 

 that his father had thus misused him ; others were of opinion that it was his mother; 



