626 INSECTIVORA 



Shrew from the Cape, which is quite unique among the whole 

 family in having a rudimental seventh pair of lower teeth. 



Crocidura?- — Dentition : i f, c £, p ^ L > m % ; total 28 or 30. 

 Male or female generative organs forming a short cloaca with the 

 anal orifice. Tail long, with a mixture of long and short hairs. 

 Other characters as in Myosorex. Habits terrestrial. 



This Old World genus includes over seventy nominal species, 

 which have been divided into four subgenera, C. aranea and C. 

 suaveolens of Continental Europe, and C. ccerulea of India, being well- 

 known forms. The species are very variable and difficult to dis- 

 criminate. C. aranea has a very wide distribution, ranging from 

 Central and Southern Europe to North Africa and Central Asia. 

 The name Musk -Rat is popularly applied in India to C. ccerulea, 

 which frequents houses at night, hunting round rooms for cockroaches 

 and other insects, and occasionally uttering a sharp shrill cry. The 

 strong musky odour of this animal arises from large glands situated 

 beneath the skin of the side of the body, a short distance behind 

 the fore limbs. This odour is so powerful and penetrating that it 

 is popularly believed in India that if the animal runs over a corked 

 bottle of wine or beer it will infect the fluid within. Jerdon says 

 that certainly many bottles are met with quite undrinkable from 

 the peculiar musky odour of their contents, but, rejecting the 

 possibility of its passing through the glass, he attributes it to 

 the corks having been infected previously to bottling, stating in 

 corroboration of this view that he has never found the odour in 

 liquors bottled in England. 



IHplomesodon. 2 — Dentition: i -f, c ^, p \, in f ; total 26. Tail 

 moderate ; soles of the feet hairy. Other characters as in Crocidura. 

 Habits terrestrial. 



This genus is represented only by D. pulchellus of the Kirghiz 

 steppes, which is allied to the following form, although retaining 

 the normal Shrew-like external contour. 



Anurosorex. 3 — Dentition : i #, c i p \, m § ; total 26. Ear 

 very short ; tail rudimental or short ; soles of feet naked. Other 

 characters as in Diplomesoclon. 



The two species of this genus are Mole-like terrestrial forms, of 

 which the typical A. scpiamipes occurs in Tibet, while A. assamensis 

 is found in Assam. The latter species has the longer tail. The 

 habits of both are probably fossorial. 



Chimarrogcde. 4 — Dentition : i %, c ^, p \, m % ; total 28. Penis 

 broad, with lateral processes ; male or female generative organs 

 opening within the same integumentary ring as the anal orifice. 



1 Wagler, Isis, 1832, p. 275. 2 Brandt, in Lehmanris Rcisc.-Zool. Anh. 



p. 299 (1852). 3 Milne-Edwards, Comptes Eendus, vol. lxx. p. 341 (1870). 



4 Anderson, Journ. As. Soe. Bengal, vol. xlvi. p. 262 (1877). 



