ii8 SORICID^— SOREX 



1889, of Cheshire in 1894, ^^^ of Shropshire in 1900.^ In 

 fact, until the present era of systematic trapping it was uni- 

 versally regarded by naturalists as a much more valuable 

 prize than it is now known to be, which is not surprising in 

 view of the fact that in those days practically all the shrews 

 which came to hand were provided either by the accidents of 

 aestival mortality or by the unguided forays of the domestic 

 cat. 



In its habits, so far as our scanty knowledge goes, the 

 Pygmy does not differ widely from the Common Shrew; 

 it may be taken with the same traps and baits, in the same 

 runs, and in the same localities, at all seasons and in every state 

 of the weather. There is one, for instance, in the British 

 Museum, which was caught by Mr R. J. Cunninghame in a 

 Skandinavian forest, at an altitude of 1900 feet, on 15th 

 January 1895, the trap having been placed on two feet of snow 

 and the thermometer standing at zero. It is, if anything, of 

 more extensive distribution than the larger species, occurring, 

 as it does, from sea-level to the tops of our highest mountains, 

 having been found in Scotland on a snow-patch at 2000 feet 

 at least,^ as well as at the summit of Ben Nevis (4400 feet), and 

 on many desolate islands where the larger species is absent. 

 Some writers state that, although not restricted to any particular 

 haunts, it prefers wooded localities. Messrs G. H. Caton 

 Haigh * and Lionel E. Adams * have nearly always found it in 

 woods, but William Thompson particularly noted its occurrence 

 on the loftiest of the Irish mountain-tops, "where these are 

 clothed with verdure." It is evidently, as might be expected 

 from its slender feet and long outer toes, an excellent climber, 

 and one was found in a room in the upper storey of my 

 home in Ireland, where, having ascended the curtains, it pro- 

 ceeded to draw so much attention to itself by its constant 

 squeaking that it was thought to be something uncanny, and 

 was shot. Another instance of this shrew having entered a 

 house in county Galway was communicated to me by Mr R. F. 

 Hibbert. But this is a common practice with shrews in the 



1 Forrest, MS. ^ q jj. Alston, Ann. Scott. Nat. Hist., 1909, 114. 



' MS. * Zoologist, 1906, 439. 



