a 



MAMMALS. 



Ivoyal Scottish Museum, and was duly noted in the Annals Scot 

 Kat. Hist (1892, p. 69). 



Of the continuity, however, of its distribution at the present time 

 there seems to be scarcely any reasonable doubt, though it seems 

 certainly to be not so numerous as its bigger brother, which was in 

 all probability a later arrival in Britain, as we find it cut off, unless 

 by introductions, from both the inner and the outer isles, while the 

 present smaller species holds its principal colonies among these islands. 

 I may mention here that specimens have been sent me from Argyll 

 recently, and on a former occasion also from another part of that 

 area to Mr. Eagle Clarke. Mr. Charles Alston obtained specimens 

 on Loch Awe side in November 1903, and preserved them. I 

 mention this here merely to preserve the continuity beyond our 

 area at present under discussion. And Colonel Feilden has recorded 

 a specimen observed by himself on the summit of Ben Nevis (Annals 

 Scot. Nat Hist., 1892, p. 42). 



Crossopus fodiens (Pallas). Water Shrew. 



Of very general distribution, though not easily observed, and their 

 presence not always detected, except by the use of traps. I have had 

 specimens accidentally trapped by falling into pitfalls formed by the 

 withdrawal of old " stobs " along the line of a fence near the water- 

 side, and some of these I kept alive for some little time; but 

 the cannibal proclivities which they each and all developed in 

 imprisonment soon reduced the number to one, and he died also — no 

 doubt from repletion. He had left the skin only of his last surviving 

 relation as neatly laid out flat as bleaching linen, and as cleanly 

 divested of every scrap of flesh as if it had been scraped by a 

 scalpel. 



From all parts of the country specimens are being received, i.e. 

 from mainland localities. Dr. Buchanan White when he wrote had 

 specimens from Tay sent in to the Museum at Perth, and there were 

 records from Fife (William Evans), and as long ago as in the days of 

 Fleming's History of British Anivials. Nevertheless, records have 

 not bulked largely by any means, though there can be scarcely any 

 doubt regarding their almost universal dispersal on the mainland of 

 Scotland. 



Millais records having examined a very large specimen — a i — 

 which is in the Perth Museum, and exceeds five inches in length. It 

 is known to occur on the Tay at Dalguise, Delvin, Stobhall, etc. 



