4 
SORICID.E. 
The Mole, Talpa Europcea, Linn., 
Is not indigenous to Ireland. 
It is singular, when entering Scotland and Wales, at the nearest ports 
to Ireland, to see mole-hills in both those countries, almost as soon as we 
land. They are very numerous along the coast of Ayrshire, just opposite 
Antrim ; and I have remarked them close by the roadside in Anglesea, 
near to Holyhead, which I mention on account of the western position. 
12th Dec., 1838. — I examined the stomach of a mole, and found it en- 
tirely filled with earthworms. One or two, which were quite perfect, were 
of the short thick species, with the yellow band round the body. 
At Aberarder, about 16 miles from the town of Inverness, I remarked 
burrows of the mole. 
Shrew, or Shrew-mouse, Sorex rusticus, Jenyns. 
This is the common shrew of Ireland, from North to South. 
My descriptive notes on the species, made from numerous specimens, 
are not here required, as Mr. Jenyns has fully treated of it in the Ann. 
Nat. Hist. vol. i. p. 423, and vol. vii. p. 263. 
All the shrews from different localities in Antrim and Down — from the 
Counties of Donegal, Fermanagh, and Armagh, and from Youghal, County 
Cork, which have come under my examination (with the exception of 
one specimen of the Sorex tetragonurus, to be hereafter noticed), are of 
this species, which is the shrew-mouse of Ireland. It is found from the 
low grounds to lofty mountain-tops, where these are clothed with verdure. 
Rutty calls it the Erdshrew or Grassmouse. 
The Common Shrew (of Great Britain), Sorex tetragonurus, 
Herm. 
I have seen but one native specimen of this shrew, which was procured 
by the Ordnance collectors, near the Giant’s Causeway. 
In the soricidce , as in some other Mammalia, we find a singular differ- 
ence to prevail between those inhabiting Great Britain and Ireland, re- 
spectively, the common species of each island being rare in the other. 
As Sorex tetragonurus is the common one in Great Britain, so is Sorex 
rusticus in Ireland. I have found the S. tetragonurus dead about Leaming- 
ton, Warwickshire, and have received it from different parts of Ayrshire. 
A specimen from the latter locality differed so much in colour from others 
in my possession, that I was disposed to believe it S. castaneus, Jenyns, 
Chari. Mag. Nat. Hist. 3, 581 ; but, indeed, this species can hardly be 
considered as satisfactorily established. — See Annals, vol. vii. p. 267. 
From different parts of Ayrshire I have received specimens of Sorex 
fodiens, along with the S. tetragonurus. One of the former was caught 
by a cat, and brought into the house, where it came under my notice in a 
recent state. 
Its stomach was filled with insects and their larvae. 
Richard Chute, Esq., of Blennerville, County Kerry, informed me that 
he caught, on the mountain above that village, a beautiful cream-coloured 
shrew-mouse, in the summer of 1840. It was larger than the common 
shrew, and he felt satisfied (without reference to colour) that it was of a 
different species. The specimen was not preserved. 
