CARISIAKIA. 89 



incisors which are flattened and triangular. Behind these incisors 

 are six or seven small teeth and four bristled molars. Their snout 

 is drawn out into alittle flexible proboscis, which they keep constantly 

 in motion. Their long tail, scaly, and flattened on the sides, with 

 their feet of five fingers all united by membranes, evidently proclaim 

 them to be aquatic animals. Their eyes are very small, and they have 

 no external ears. 



Sorex moschatus, L.; Bufi". X; Pall. Act. Petrop. 1781, part 

 II, pi. 5. (The Russian Muskrat.) Nearly as large as a Shrew; 

 above blackish, beneath whitish ; tail not so long as the body 

 by one-fourth. Very common along the rivers and lakes of 

 southern Russia, where it lives on Worms, the larvae of Insects, 

 and particularly on Leeches, which, by means of its flexible 

 snout, it easily withdraws from the mud. Its burrow, which is 

 made in the bank, commences under water, and ascends to such 

 a height as to be above its level in the greatest floods. This 

 animal never comes voluntarily on shore, but numbers of them 

 are taken in the nets of the fishermen. Its musky odour arises 

 from a kind of pomatum that is secreted in small follicles un- 

 der the tail, and it is so powerful as to be communicated to the 

 flesh of the Pike which feeds on the Desman. 



A small species of this genus is found in the rivulets of the 

 Pyrenees, whose tail is longer than its bodyj ascertained by M. 

 Geoff". Ann. du Mus. tom. XVII, pi. iv, f. 1, Myg. pyrendica, H. 



Chrysochloris, Lacep. 



Animals of this genus, like those of the preceding one, have two in- 

 cisors above and four below; but their grinders are long, distinct 

 and almost all shaped like triangular prisms. Their muzzle is 

 short, broad and recurved, and their fore-feet have only three nails, 

 of which the external, that is very large, much arcuated and 

 pointed, serves them as a powerful instrument for excavating and 

 piercing the earth ; the others regularly decrease in size. The hind 

 feet have five of an ordinary size. They are subterraneous animals, 

 whose mode of life is similar to that of Moles. To enable them to 

 dig the better, their fore-arm is supported by a third bone placed 

 under the cubitus. 



C. asiaticus ; Talpa asiatica, L.; Schreb. CLVII ; and better, 

 Brown, 111. XLV. (The Golden Mole.) A little smaller than 

 the European Mole ; no apparent tail ; is the only known quad- 

 ruped that presents any appearance of those splendid metallic 

 tints which brighten and adorn so many Birds, Fishes and In- 

 sects. Its fur is a green, changing to a copper or bronze; 

 Vol. I M 



