MAMMALS the dry patches ot cow-dung in the meadows to feed on the grubs beneath. In some wet swampy meadows near Minsmere sluice, which many years ago were more or less flooded every winter, sometimes as late as March, shrews used to be very numerous. After a sudden rise of water a great many might be seen congregated upon small patches of higher ground. Even where the surface was covered with water they could then be seen running up and down the broken-down stems of reeds and other plants, while at times they seemed to be actually running upon the water, the scum upon the surface with various floating odds and ends which had collected there being buoyant enough in places to support their weight. In these marshes I have found their nests by the sides of ditches ; the occupants on being disturbed taking to the water quite readily, and swimming well. Individuals having white tips to their tails are frequently met with as elsewhere. On 14 March 1883 I caught a pied shrew at Farn- ham. A broad band of white almost entirely encircled the body at the loins, the edges being sharply defined. One side of the head and neck was of a silvery grey tint. Specimens having a few scattered white hairs on the forehead are not uncommon. The ravenous and insatiable appetite possessed by both moles and shrews is well known. If a common shrew just caught be held in one hand, and a beetle or woodlouse offered it with the other, it will at once seize and devour it. The writer once placed two of these little animals in a cage with a good supply of worms and insects. The next morning only one CQuld be found, and that dead, the body looking unnaturally distended. After a close search one foot and some of the fur of the other was found. One of these shrews had evidently killed and eaten its companion, paying for this act of cannibalism with its own life. II. Pigmy Shrew. Sorex minutus, Falhs. Bell — Sorex fygmceus. Two skulls of this little animal have been found by the Rev. Francis C. R. Jourdain in owl pellets at Huntingfield, in the eastern part of the county, and one at Great Thur- low in the west, and have been identified by Mr. Lionel E. Adams. On 23 December 1892 Mr. F. Norgate of Bury St. Edmunds saw a specimen of S. pygtmeus dive into a narrow crevice three quarters by one quarter of an inch wide between the bricks of his porch floor, and setting a trap close to the spot caught the animal in the following March. I have on several occasions come upon shrews of this species, both living and dead, at Blax- hall ; in more than one instance from noticing a cat or kitten playing with one, and do not think it can be very uncommon. Owing to its extremely diminutive size and inconspicuous colour (harmonizing perfectly with the dead leaves, dry sticks, etc., among which it lives), it no doubt often escapes notice. All three of our British shrews are subject to that myster- ious mortality which in the case of S. araneus has so often attracted attention, but never I believe been satisfactorily accounted for. Mr. Edward Bidwell has an albino of this species from Thetford {Trans. Norf. and Nor. Nat. Soc. iii. 667). 12. Water Shrew. Neomys fodiens, Pallas. Bell — Crossoptts fodiens. This pretty and interesting little animal is widely distributed in the county, though I know of no locality where it can be called abundant. Its habits and the nature of its haunts alike tend to shield it from observation in spite of its rather conspicuous and strongly contrasted colours. In the north-east, towards the Norfolk boundary, its occurrence is re- corded by Mr. Southwell {'Mammalia and Reptilia of Norfolk,' Zool. 187 1, p. 2753), who refers to a specimen from Oulton, Suffolk, seen by Mr. Gurney. At Fritton Decoy Mr. F. Norgate has watched these little animals diving for their prey. The Rev. E. T. Daubeny informs me that he has once or twice observed this species at Market Weston near Thetford. About Wilby the Rev. H. S. Marriott has met with it in some numbers, more particularly in the early spring. The Rev. F. C. R. Jourdain obtained a skull of the water shrew at Huntingfield, near Hales- worth, and another at Great Thurlow in west Suffolk. Both these skulls were taken from pellets of the barn owl {Strix flammea and were examined by Mr. Lionel E. Adams. About Needham Market this animal has no( unfrequently been observed by Mr. H. Ling- wood, and the late Dr. Churchill Babington, author of the Birdi of Suffolk, has taken it at Cockfield. In the neighbourhood of Blaxhail it is not uncommon, and the writer has seen it ' fishing ' in a pond surrounded by trees in that parish, and also in a ditch near Dunning- worth Hall, Tunstall. Elsewhere in that district he has occasionally met with examples both living and dead, some of the latter at a distance from water. It has also been ob- served at Leiston. In September 1886 I picked up a dead one at Stratford St. Mary, on the banks of the river Stour, which here forms the southern boundary of the county, and Mr. H. Miller informs me that this 2ig
