MAMMALS. 



159 



The albino variety occurs also at several localities, and is not 

 'unfrequent at Dalness on the Findhom ' {Fauna of Mcray, 1889, 

 p. 12). 



A very good albino specimen was killed at Morvich, in 

 Sutherland, March 1893. 



Family SOEICID^. 

 So rex tetragon urus, Htnmxn. Common Shrew. 



Lxal I'.'Uii'.. — Straw-Mouse (R. Thomson). 



Present Distribution. — Abundant ; general. Cromdale, Speyside {aud. 

 Wm. Evans, in lit. 1891). Elgin {aud. Wm. Eagle-Clarke). 

 Specimens sent by Rev. Dr. Gordon for Edinburgh Museum 

 (1891). 'Banff plentiful' (Edward). Ferness, Findhom, 1893 

 (R. Thomson). 



Common evervwhere, and is found at high elevations, as, for 

 instance, within 100 feet of the top of Meall Fuarvounie, which is 

 2700 feet above sea-level, and lies on the north side of Loch Ness 

 (A. Hepburn). In some notes sent us by Murdoch Matheson, 

 who lives about five miles from Invergarry, he mentions he caught 

 a Shrew near the top of Maoil-an-Dogairt, in January 1888, which 

 was hunting flies and earth-worms. In March of the same year 

 he observes that ' several Shrews have been going about all day : 

 they dive under the snow and go for yards before they rise 

 again.' 



In a paper written by Mr. William Taylor, Lhanbryde, that 

 gentleman says that the Common Shrew is very abundant in 

 the neighbourhood. It lives in drj- as well as wet places, and 

 is found abroad during the most intense frost searching for 

 food. It is very prolific, often ha>*ing seven young at a time. 



Mr. R. Thomson, in his excellent notes in MS. on the fauna 

 of Ardclach, points out that the ' Straw Moose," though popokrly 

 classed with the Common Mouse, possesses insectivorous, and 

 not rodent, teeth — an object-lesson well worthy of use in our 

 schools if we give object-lessons in natural history. Mr. R. 

 Thomson has some ver}* pleasant notes upon its habits, and how 

 iu presence may be often detected by * its sharp, excited notes ' 



