MAMMALIA 7 



persons, unless the mortality which so often occurs among 

 Shrews in autumn happens to arrest their attention. It fre- 

 quents the banks of the hedges which enclose our hayfields, 

 and its shrill cry can often be heard on a summer evening. 

 This small animal appears to be more active in the gloaming 

 than during the earlier hours of the day. 



LESSER SHREW. 

 Sorex minutus, L. 



This Shrew has only been sent to me for identification from 

 two localities, but as these are wide apart it is quite possible 

 that the species may be thinly distributed over Lakeland. Mr. 

 W. Duckworth kindly forwarded a specimen of this Shrew from 

 Ulverston. Mr. Richard Mann favoured me with another speci- 

 men, procured near Allonby, in the English Solway district. 



WATER SHREW. 



Crossopus fodiens (Pallas). 



Both the black and the pied forms of this Shrew frequent the 

 ditches and smaller becks of Lakeland. Judging from my own 

 experience, I should have supposed that this small mammal 

 must be comparatively rare, but this is refuted by the fact that 

 they are often obtained by their natural enemies. House cats 

 more frequently bring them to notice than any other animal, 

 but their skulls occurred somewhat numerously in the pellets 

 of the Barn Owl taken in the neighbourhood of the Eden. 

 Mr. Bailey of Cummersdale brought to me specimens of both 

 forms. The last of these was all black, and had been obtained 

 on the Caldew, its capture being due to the loud cries with 

 which it challenged attention on a summer evening. Mr. W. 

 Hodgson, A.L.S., states that whether stationed at Aspatria, 

 Frizington, or Watermillock, during the last fifty years, he has 

 ever found them in respectable numbers : ' They are entirely 

 aquatic in their habits, and in droughty seasons, such as those 

 of 1859 and 1868, suffered severely from the drying up of little 

 rills or water-courses.' During the summer of 1842 our old 

 friend had almost daily opportunity of studying a brood of five 



