CLIMBING OF THE WATER SHREW. 21
In many cases, I observed that, in the process, the stone was
split into its two halves.
I have placed specimens of these berries also in the Club's
Museum.
There can be no doubt, I think, that in the case of these
haws the work was done not by Voles (as in the case of the
rose-hips mentioned above), but by the much-larger Field Mice.
CLIMBING OF THE WATER SHREW.
By FRED. J. STUBBS.
The Water Shrew will sometimes wander far from water;
and, where a stream has been bordered by steep rocks, I have
found that this agile animal is a ready climber. On the Pennines,
I have often seen Water Shrews climbing over rocks; and
both Common and Lesser Shrews exist in steep rocky woods
and fields where climbing must be almost a necessity of existence.
That the little animal should be capable of climbing trees
is, however, new to me. On the 2nd June 1910, near Rainham,
I saw a Water Shrew leave the bank of the stream and run up
the trunk of a pollard willow, a yard or so in front of me.
It clung to the bark like a squirrel, with body pressed flat and
the four legs widely spread; and it moved head downwards
as easily and as rapidly as in the opposite posture. The eager
little being was evidently searching for insects. In a few
seconds, after being about six feet from the earth, it descended
and vanished in the dense herbage. This took place about mid-
day.
[Mr. Stubbs' note is of much interest; for the climbing
powers of the Water Shrew appear hitherto to have passed
almost unobserved (or, at any rate, unrecorded). I have
searched the literature relating to the animal with some care;
and, so far as I can find, none of the leading British writers thereon
(neither Bell, Millais, nor Barrett-Hamilton) refer to its climbing
powers. The only definite reference thereto which I have been
able to discover is that of Mr. T. G. Rope, of Blaxhall, Suffolk,
who says (Zoologist, 1900, p. 477), of an individual which he
kept for a few hours in a mouse-cage, that "Its climbing powers
were considerable, for it not only ascended easily the upright
wires of its cage, but even made its way along the top, clinging
back downwards to the wires."—Ed.]