COMMON SHREW. 143 



History for 1841, and to this we shall have occasion to 

 refer in our account of the next species. But previously 

 to the publication of this last paper, indeed hearing the 

 same date as the first by Mr. Jenyns, and one year later 

 than the date of publication of the first edition of the 

 present vfork, a very excellent memoir on the European 

 Shrew^s, by M. Nathusius, was commended in Weigman's 

 Archives, in which the Sorex tetragonurus of Herman is 

 given as a synonym of the Sorex vulgaris of Linnaeus, 

 and this decision is now generally accepted. 



From their obscure and hideling habits, the Shrews 

 are difficult of observation ; their long and pointed snout, 

 their extensible form, and short and velvety coat, enable 

 them to pass through the closest herbage, or beneath the 

 carpets of dry leaves in the coppice and woodland, in 

 which situations, as well as in the open fields, whether 

 cultivated or in pasture, they seek their food. But they 

 are not confined in their habitat to such situations, as 

 with their congeners, the Water Shrews, they are often 

 met with in marshy and fen districts. The food is chiefly 

 insects and worms, but also, as we have ascertained by 

 personal examination, the smaller MoUusca are not re- 

 fused. We have often found their runs in close herbage, 

 around the foot of the trees in coppices, and not unfre- 

 quently these runs contain fragments of the shells of 

 Vitrina pellucida, and some of the species of Zonites, and 

 the remains of Coleoptera. That the Shrew feeds upon 

 the Common Slug, Limax agrestis, is also certain, as we 

 have taken the remains of this creature from its stomach, 

 and, moreover, have fed it, when in confinement, with 

 these Mollusks. 



This animal, like the Mole, is excessively pugnacious, 

 so that it is rare to see two of them together, excepting 



