MUIRHEAD`S MYSTERIES: A PALE BLUE SHREW IN BRITAIN

Hi all,

About 2 weeks ago at a friend`s house in Surrey, I found the following in J.L. Knapp`s  The Journal of a Naturalist (1830)

“ I think we have reasons for suspecting, that a shrew new to Britain exists in this neighbourhood, A pale blue shrew (Sorex Daubentonii? Cuvier) has been seen about the margins of our reens (ϯ) ,and the deep marsh ditches cut for draining the water from the low lands of the Severn; and something of the same kind , in a half digested state , has been found in the stomach of the heron If it exists with us, a similar tract of land in more fenny countries may contain it plentifully , though it has yet  escaped attention.” (1) I`ve not been able to find out any more about this anywhere, including in a comprehensive book on shrews in the Zoological Society of London library. I`ve been telling people this was a “water-shrew”, which is wrong, the text just says shrew. An encyclopaedia published in 1819 mentions a blue shrew in Java, but that`s hardly anywhere near the Severn!!

Knowledge Nov. 1898 refers to the Irish “Connagh” worm – any ideas anyone what that might have been? (2) Another book, whose title I cannot recall, but published I think c. 1940s or `50s, refers to Irish white trout with magical powers (3)

1.  J.L. Knapp`s The Journal of a Naturalist. p  142 (1830)

2. Knowledge Nov 1898

3. Unknown. 

EDITOR'S NOTE: Sorex Daubentonii is an archaic synonym for Neomys fodiens the water shrew, which is a well known British species. It is not blue.