THE PYGMY OR LESSER SHREW 113 



inner surfaces of the legs and the under surface of the tail, is 

 dirty white, with a moderately sharp line of demarcation passing 

 from the angle of the mouth on each side to the shoulders, and 

 thence along the flanks to the anus. The feet are near " wood brown ; " 

 the tail near " prout's brown," lighter beneath. In summer the upper 

 side is of a tint between " drab " and " fawn colour," with the under side 

 yellowish or brownish, lighter on the upper throat. The hidden basal 

 portions of the hairs are always and at all seasons near "blackish 

 slate," or darker. 



The above description applies to preserved skins, but in life there 

 is present on the fur an iridescence which leads English to style it 

 as "unquestionably the most beautiful" to be found on a British 

 mammal. 



The moults of the winter and summer pelages appear to 

 agree pretty closely with those of the Common Shrew, and there is 

 the same irregularity in regard to date ; the hairs of the tail are 

 renewed in summer or autumn, leaving that organ temporarily very 

 bare and the vertebrae prominent. I have seen specimens in this 

 condition from Ireland in September, and others from South 

 Ronaldshay, Orkneys, in August, the latter sent to me by Godfrey. 

 On the other hand, August specimens from South Ronaldshay and 

 Achill Island, Ireland, have the tail thickly haired, but these were 

 probably young of the year, which Adams finds have always hairy 

 tails. 



In the much smaller and more fragile skull the brain-case is 

 narrower and more elongated than in 5. araneus ; its outline, viewed 

 from above, is distinctly oval, not circular. The unicuspids are charac- 

 teristic, since they decrease in size with comparative regularity from front 

 to back. Nos. i, 2, and 3 are nearly equal, 4 is distinctly smaller than 3, 

 and 5 is minute, although usually of relatively larger size and greater 

 external visibility than in 5. araneus. The posterior molar is large 

 and projects behind the process of the malar bone, whereas in S. araneus 

 it is so entirely concealed by that bone as to be usually invisible from the 

 outside. In the first upper incisor the posterior lobe is relatively not 

 so thick as in 5. araneus, the length of its base being about half that 

 of the anterior cusp ; and in the first lower incisor the basal lobes do 

 not diminish regularly in diameter from front to back, but the first 

 is as well defined from the anterior point of the tooth as from the 

 second lobe (Fig. 24, No. 2, p. 90) ; the gap between the first and 

 second is not conspicuously the largest, as it is in 5. araneus. 



This species is much less subject to individual variation than 

 S. araneus. Merriam and Miller {North American Fauna, No. 10, 1895), 

 state that in the American Pygmy Shrew, 5. personatus, a chestnut 

 pelage or phase occurs, but is rare. This may possibly correspond to 



