14 Mr. E. Blyth on the Indian species of Shrews. 



to Col. Sykes these troublesome and disagreeable animals are 

 very numerous in Dukhun, but much more so in Bombay. The 

 sebaceous glands in an old male were observed to be very large, 

 and the odour of musk from them almost insupportable ; while 

 in an adult female the glands were scarcely discernible, and the 

 scent of musk very faint. [It is tolerably strong in the female 

 of S. CtERULEscens ; though more or less so, perhaps, with re- 

 ference to sexual condition.] " The Sorex indicus and S. gi- 

 GANTEUS,'^ it is added, " are regarded by Col. Sykes as speci- 

 fically identical, he having killed them in the same room, and 

 seen them frequently together.'' (P. Z. S. 1831, p. 99.) Prof. 

 Schinz accordingly assigns S. giganteus, Geoff., Ann. du Mus. 

 XV. pi. 4. f. 3, as a synonym of S. indicus ; but the reference is 

 erroneous, the ^ Memoires du Museum,' torn. xv. (to which we 

 have not access) being probably intended. S. giganteus. Is. 

 Geoff., Voy. de Belanger, refers to S. ccerulescens of Bengal. 



According to M. Isidore Geoffroy, the S. indicus (his S.Sonne- 

 ratii) is a smaller animal than S. c^rulescens (his S. giganteus) ^ 

 with tail forming always a quarter of the entire length. Length 

 of head and body of adult a little under 4 in. (Fr.). Fur ashy, 

 washed with russet-brown, and pale ashy below. Inhabits the 

 Coromandel coast and also the Mauritius. If truly a distinct 

 species from S. c^rulescens, its natural habitat is probably 

 W. India ; but we have vainly sought for information of such an 

 animal. 



In Dr. Riippell's printed Catalogue of the specimens of Mam- 

 malia in the Frankfort Museum (1842), examples referred to 

 S. indicus, L. (Fr. Cuv. Mamm. ii. t. 28), are noted from Java, 

 and also from Massoua and from Suez ; and a supposed variety, 

 termed by him S. indicus, var. cinereo-anea, from Schoa ; and 

 he elsewhere suggests that these animals have probably been 

 introduced by the shipping from S.E. Asia and its islands, and 

 so found their way even to Schoa, where a different climate had 

 effected the colouring of the fur. On ship-board they could of 

 course subsist on Blattce ; but their presence (certainly that 

 of the foetid S. ccerulescens of Bengal) would scarcely escape 

 remark, the more especially as that of a single individual might 

 seriously damage a whole cargo ; besides the obvious necessity of 

 both sexes being required to continue the race, a condition most 

 likely to be fulfilled by the conveyal of a pregnant female with 

 her future litter of some five or six. S. crassicaudus (nee 

 crassicaudatus) , Lichtenstein, refers to a Musk Shrew inhabiting 

 Egypt, and stated to be common about Suez, which may there- 

 fore be presumed identical with Dr. RiippelFs S. indicus from 

 Suez ; and the description certainly seems to approximate that 



