THE WATER SHREW 141 



worms, the empty cases of which were deposited at a single 

 place on the bank : and Mr Coward has also sent me an 

 instance of the same kind of deposit on an old moorhen's 

 nest. 



There is ample evidence to show that the Water Shrew will 

 eat, or at least attack, both frogs and fish, together with their 

 spawn ^ and fry. Frogs even of large size are seized by the 

 nose or leg ^ and dragged off, with much shaking and outcry, 

 to the burrow. Attacks on fish have been but rarely 

 witnessed, but the complaints of fish-farmers are very detailed ^ 

 and are not contrary to the observations of Mr English 

 and of the principal foreign zoologists such as Professor Robert 

 Collett for Norway, who write of the piscivorous habits of the 

 Water Shrew as proved beyond doubt. Of British instances 

 may be cited Mr T. J. Bold's statement that he shot a water 

 shrew and a fish, which he discovered "apparently rolling over 

 and over in the water, and doing battle with all their energy."* 

 A correspondent of the late John Cordeaux's^ was also so 

 fortunate as to witness the struggles of a water shrew and a 

 small fish, which it seized " with all the pluck and ferocity of 

 an otter poaching in a salmon-stream." Again, Mr E. G. B. 

 Meade- Waldo informed Mr Millais that he has frequently seen 

 these shrews chasing trout "up to a fair size," and there is 

 among other evidence, that of Messrs J. A. Harvie-Brown 

 and T. E. Buckley.^ Monsieur H. Gadeau de Kerville 

 has, however, pushed the accusation further home, quoting 

 Brehm as having observed one perched on the head of a carp, 

 where it hung on by its claws, and declaring that it evinces a 

 particular desire for the brain of fish, in order to satisfy which 

 it does not hesitate to attack large carp, clawing at their heads, 

 tearing out and eating their eyes, piercing the cranium and 

 devouring its contents. 



' A. Trevor-Battye in Lydekker ; see also, Field, 3rd July 1909, 44 ; and Hy. 

 S. (the late Henry Scherren), Field, loth July 1909, 94, where much evidence, both 

 for England and the Continent, is collected. 



^ C. R. Bree, Zoologist, 1853, 4047 ; W. Jeffery, junior, Joum. cit, 1868, 1254. 



^ A. Severn, Bibury Fishery, near Fairford, Gloucester, Field, i8th November, 

 1905, 907 ; Donald Walker, Welham Park Fish Hatchery, Malton, Yorkshire, Joum. 

 cit., 25th November 1905, 943. 



* Trans. Tytieside Nat. Field Club, v., 155, 1862. ^ Zoologist, 1881, 207-208. 



^ Vertebrate Fauna of Sutherland, Caithness, and West Cromarty, 1887, 72-73. 

 VOL. II. K 2 



