of the British Shrews. 37 



fodiens of Brehm) may be the same as the fodieus of this country. 

 But it will be unprofitable at present to pursue this inquiry further. 

 And until we have a more exact knowledge of the characters of 

 those species to which the name oi fodiens has been applied abroad, 

 I think it would be advisable to abstain from applying that name to 

 our own species, or at least considering this last as necessarily 

 identical with any of the above. One thing is certain ; — that it is 

 not the S. fodiens of Duvernoy, which is probably synonymous with 

 the Musaraigne d'eaii of the other French authors. If it be asked 

 by what name we are to call the water shrew of this country, I 

 would propose, (at least for the present) restoring to it that of bi- 

 color ; a name originally given to it by Shaw, * — one extremely 

 applicable, and, so far as I know, not adopted by any foreign author 

 as a name for any of the species met with on the continent. 



With respect to the S. remifer of this country, I have nothing 

 new to adduce on the subject of its synonymy. In Duvernoy's me- 

 moir there is not the slightest mention made of this species, by 

 which we can get a clue to the dentition of the one originally so 

 named by Geoffroy, or the section to which it belongs in his own 

 arrangememt. I shall simply state, that, judging from the slight 

 differences in the teeth already alluded to, added to its other charac- 

 ters previously established, I feel strengthened in the opinion of its 

 being really distinct from our S. fodiens, to which, however, it is at 

 the same time vert/ closely allied. 



Having endeavoured in the preceding pages to elucidate the cha- 

 racters, and to rectify the nomenclature, of our three British Shrews, 

 I am anxious now to direct attention to two varieties of our most 

 common species {araneus of authors,) met with in my own neigh- 

 bourhood, and which, had they occurred to persons not very conver- 

 sant with these animals, might easily have been regarded as distinct. 

 The first which I shall notice is one already alluded to in a former 

 part of this paper as remarkable for its size. ' 



Var. I. — Dimensions as follows : — 



Inc. Lin. 

 Length of the head and body, - - - - 3 1 



of the head, - - - - - Oil 



of the tail (to the end of the bone,) - - - 17 



of the hind foot (from the heel to the extremity of the claws,) 6^ 

 of the fore foot (from the wrist in like manner,) - 4 



of the ears, -- - - - - 01 J 



From the eye to the anterior margin of the orifice of the ear, - 4 

 to the tip of the snout, - - - - 4| 



* Nat. Misc. Vol. ii. pi. 55. 



