36 Dentition and Characters 



tainty in the descriptions of foreign authors. In fact it is quite 

 clear that, in this instance also, there have been at least two, if not 

 more, species confounded ; sometimes under the name of S. Dau- 

 bentonii, at other times under that of S.fodiens, The former name, 

 I believe, originated with Erxleben,* by whom it was applied to the 

 Musaraigne d'eau of Daubenton, t which is probably the same as 

 the species described subsequently under the same name by Geof- 

 froy and many of the French writers, but by Hermann under that 

 of S. carinalus, and by Duvernoy, in his recent memoir, under that 

 of S.fodiens. The latter (S. fodiens) was first given by Pallas to 

 a species discovered by himself near Berlin, of which he sent seve- 

 ral prints to Pennant, who considered it the same as the water 

 shrew of this country, but of which the exact characters had not 

 then, and, so far as I am aware, have never since been published. J 

 Hence we have not the means of judging what Pallas's species real- 

 ly was. If Duvernoy is right in regarding it to be the same as his, 

 from which ours is decidedly different, it is at once evident that the 

 name of fodiens no longer of right belongs to the British species. 

 Whether ours be the Jbdiens of any other author subsequent to 

 Pallas, is a distinct question ; and that it is, there are strong grounds 

 for believing, of Gmelin in particular, Avhose characters of the teeth 

 will not accord with those of Duvernoy 's fodiens, but are very nearly 

 similar to those of our own. It must, however, be mentioned, that 

 several new aquatic species of Sorex have been indicated of late 

 years by the continental naturalists, which tends to make the in- 

 quiry more preplexing. Brehm has briefly described three, in ad- 

 dition to one which he considers as the S. fodiens of Bechstein, 

 in the periodical conducted by himself under the title of Ornis. § 

 More recently, a sketch of a new arrangement of the shrews by 

 Wagler|| has been published in the Isis of 1832. In this last essay, 

 the species are distributed under three distinct genera, somewhat 

 analogous to Duvernoy's subgenera ; and judging from the characters 

 of the teeth assigned to one of them, (Crossopits, W.) in which he 

 places the S. fodiens, I think it probable that the species intended 

 under this last name, (considered by him as synonymous with the 



* Systema Regni Animalis. Class. I. Mamm. Lips. 1777. p. 124. 

 f Mem. de VAcad. des Sci. de Par. 1756, p. 211, pi. 5. f. 2. 

 | See Penn. Hist, of Quad. (Edit. 1793.) Vol. ii. p. 225, note. 

 § The characters of these four species will be also found in Bull, des Sci. 

 Nat. 1827. Tom xi. p. 287. 



|| Said to have been found after his death amongst his manuscripts. A brief 

 abstract of the arrangement is given by Duvernoy at the conclusion of his me- 

 moir, with remarks. There only have I seen it 



4 



