236 Note on the Water Shrew. 



when he lost all traces of the weasel, and could follow it n6 

 farther. As there was no appearance of a hole, he was much 

 surprised ; and paying close attention to the track of the ani- 

 mal, he came to be convinced that it had sprung upon one of 

 the birds, which had flown away with it. As he is a person of 

 uncommonly acute observation, sound judgment, and strong 

 sense, I have the utmost confidence in the correctness of his 

 judgment regarding this curious circumstance. The conclu- 

 sion is, that the stoat knew quite well what it was about, and 

 would keep its hold until it came to the ground again, under 

 similar circumstances with the eagle. The matchless agility 

 and comparative strength of this bold little creature would 

 enable it to save itself during the fall ; before which took 

 place, it had probably, as in the former strange instance, 

 destroyed the life of its more harmless prey. 



The Water Shrew. — In Vol. II. p. 2 1 9., Mr. Dovaston gives 

 a very delightful and fascinating account of his discovering 

 somewhat of the manners and habits of the water-shrew (»S6- 

 rex fodiens), and seems to think that this elegant little animal 

 had become nearly extinct in the island : rare it assuredly is. 

 My eyes have been searching after such sorts of objects, in a 

 cursory way, for these thirty years and more, and I only have 

 seen two of them. The first time was about six years ago : I 

 noticed it swimming across a clear rill that descends from high 

 ground near Abbotsford. A gentleman present knew the 

 creature by the English name : and after much tender care 

 about its capture, and examining it as minutely as its impa- 

 tience and our fear of hurting it would permit, we set it at 

 liberty. It was, as nearly as I could judge, one third larger 

 than the common shrew, of the colour of the mole, or fully as 

 near black, if my recollection is correct. In fact, I thought, 

 when I first saw it, that it was some rare and undescribed 

 species of mole. The belly was singularly flat, and only re- 

 moved from a pure white by a touch of silver grey. The 

 small stream where it was swimming runs through a deep 

 chasm covered with old oaks and brushwood, and runs gene- 

 rally on a rocky bottom. The other I saw early last spring : 

 it was dead ; newly killed by a cat, as I thought (which kills, 

 but does not eat, the common shrew). The head of this was 

 destroyed. I found it in a pond surrounded by a young wood, 

 at Whitehope on Barrow. I could only compare the two 

 from recollection ; but I think the last, whose habitat was 

 very dissimilar, was considerably less : the colour had more 

 of a shade of brown. Some time afterwards my daughters 

 found another, likewise dead. I was then from home ; and so 

 had, at neither" time, the luck to procure a specimen ; the 



