A contribution to the biology of the common shrew (Sorex araneus Linnaeus).

Abstract

The subject-matter of this paper was obtained in the course of a routine trapping and examination of Common Shrews (Sorex araneus Linnæus) and Pigmy Shrews (Sorex minutus Linnæus) from the Oxford district between February 1926 and August 1927. The work was carried out as a side-line of a team research, financed by the Medical Research Council, into the ecology of wild mice and voles, so that many of the most interesting points have had to be neglected, and some of the matter incorporated is rather fragmentary. I wish to acknowledge the co-operation of Mr. C. S. Elton, Dr. J. R. Baker, and Mr. E. B. Ford, by whom much of the work, especially trapping, was done in the course of the general research on mice and voles.

I also wish to thank Professor E. S. Goodrich, F.R.S., for allowing me the facilities of the Department of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy at Oxford.