846 



ELEPHANT SHREW AND SONDELI. 



according to the position of the hairs which are exposed to view. The specimen which is 

 preserved in the British Museum was captured by Mr. Low in the house of Sir James Brooke, 

 the celebrated Rajah of Sarawak. 



It is presumed that the long tail of the Pen-tail is used for the purpose of balancing itself 

 in its progress among the branches of trees ; but this conjecture is only problematical, as the 

 habits of the animal are not yet known. By the arrangement and form of the teeth, it is sup- 

 posed to be allied to the Tupaias. 



THE elongation of the nose, which has already been noticed in the Tupaias of Sumatra, 

 seems to have reached its utmost limit in those curious inhabitants of the Cape that are called, 



from their elephantine elongation of nose, the 

 ELEPHANT SHREWS. Several species of Ele- 

 phant Shrews are known to exist, all of 

 which, with one exception, are inhabitants of 

 Southern Africa. The solitary exception, 

 Macroscelides Roretti, is found in Algeria. 



The peculiarly long nose of the Elephant 

 Shrew is perforated at its extremity by the 

 nostrils, which are rather obliquely placed, 

 and is supposed to aid the animal in its 

 search after the insects and other creatures on 

 which it feeds. The eyes are rather large in 

 proportion to the size of the animal. 



The tail is long and slender, much re- 

 sembling the same organ in the common 

 mouse, and in some specimens, probably 

 males, is furnished at the base with glandu- 

 lar follicles, or little sacs. The legs are 

 nearly of equal size, but the hinder limbs are 

 much longer than the fore-legs, on account of 

 the very great length of the feet, which are 

 capable of affording support to the creature as 

 it sits in an upright position. As might be 

 presumed from the great length of the hinder 

 limbs, the Elephant Shrew is possessed of 

 great locomotive powers, and when alarmed, 

 can skim over the ground with such celerity 



that its form becomes quite obscured by the rapidity of its movement through the air. Its 

 food consists of insects, which it captures in open day. 



Although tlie Elephant Shrew is a diurnal animal, seeking its prey in broad daylight, its 

 habitation is made below the surface of the ground, and consists of a deep and tortuous bur- 

 row, the entrance to which is a perpendicularly-sunk shaft of some little 'depth. To this place 

 of refuge the creature always flies when alarmed, and as it is so exceedingly swift in its move- 

 ments, it is not readily captured or intercepted. 



The color of the fur is a dark and rather cloudy brown, which is warmed with a reddish 

 tinge upon the sides and flanks, and fades on the abdomen and inner portions of the limbs 

 into a grayish- white. The generic name,' Macroscelides, is of Greek origin, in allusion to the 

 great length of its hinder limbs, and signifies "long-legged." It is but a small animal, as the 

 length of the head and body is not quite four inches in measurement, and the tail is about 

 three inches and a quarter. 



PASSING in a regular gradation from the moles to the shrews and hedgehogs, we pause 

 for a while at the powerfully scented animal that is called, by virtue of its perfumed person, 

 the MUSK-RAT of India, and is also known by the titles of MONJOUKOU, and SONDELI. 



ELEPHANT SHREW. Macroscelides typicus. 



