NOTES AND QUERIES. 439 



known in Surrey as the " Grass-Mouse." I have not yet come across 

 this term, particularly applicable to this mouse, which is always much 

 in evidence during the cutting of the hay.* A correspondent in 

 ' Science Gossip,' writing in 1882, says : — " The Common Shrew is 

 called the ' Grass-Mouse' in Co. Fermanagh." This must refer to the 

 Lesser Shrew (the only Irish Shrew), if it really applies to the Shrew 

 at all, which is rather doubtful, as the Lesser Shrew — in England, at 

 all events — seems to be almost restricted to the cover of woods and 

 spinneys, or hedges neighbouring such cover ; though in some of the 

 treeless districts of Ireland necessity may have induced other habits. 

 In Ireland I have only met with this species in the north, where its 

 nests are placed in the bottoms of loose stone walls, always, as far as 

 my observations went, in the neighbourhood of trees. In Surrey, 

 Shrews are known as " Sheer Mice," which is doubtless a meta- 

 thesized form of the word " Shrew." The Lesser Shrew, which is 

 exceedingly rare here, is quite unknown to keepers, farmers, and taxi- 

 dermists alike; and the Waier-Shrew is only known to a very few. 

 Here the Dormouse always goes by the appropriate name " Sleep 

 Mouse." It is becoming very scarce, and within the last ten years has 

 quite disappeared in districts where it was formerly common. The 

 Harvest-Mouse, though now almost extinct in Surrey, is well known 

 to most of the country-folk. One farmer knew it well round Epsom 

 some years ago, and speaks of it as the " Ked Mouse." I am not sure 

 if this is his own particular descriptive name, or a local term. I have 

 an impression that there is a continental fable concerning the " Red 

 Mouse," but I cannot recollect any particulars, or if it refers to Mm 

 minutus. A reaper whom I lately interviewed told me that the 

 Harvest-Mouse was known as the " Squeaker " in Oxfordshire when 

 he was a boy. The Long- tailed Field-Mouse is universally known in 

 Surrey as the " Bean Mouse," or the " Beaner," on account of its 

 partiality for beans and peas. — Lionel E. Adams (Reigate). 



Goldsmith as a Naturalist. — Butcher Bird.— Mr. Bruce Cummings 

 (ante, p. 383) says that he cannot determine what Goldsmith meant by 

 the Butcher-Bird, " which is a little bigger than a Titmouse, and 

 lives in the marshes near London." Was it not the silerella of 

 Sir Thomas Browne (1674), the Least Butcher-Bird of Edwards 

 (1745), and the Bearded Titmouse (Pannrus biarmicus) of the B. 0. U. 

 List ? — Maurice C. H. Bird (Brunstead Rectory, Stalham). 



* Since writing the above I have heard the term used by our gardener, 

 who gave me a very accurate description of the mouse in question. 



