Mr. E. Blytli on the Indian species of Shrews. 13 



it '' the common House Shrew of the plains, and also of the hills 

 up at least to 6000 feet." We have seen specimens from the 

 neighbourhood of Agra ; but whether it be the common Musk 

 Shrew of South India is doubtful on present evidence, though 

 Dr. Kelaart^s description of the Cingalese animal corresponds. 

 It certainly does not appear to inhabit the eastern coast of the 

 Bay of Bengal, from Arakan to the Straits of Malacca. Dr. 

 Horsfield gives as its habitat '^ India generally, and the eastern 

 islands ;" and he notes a specimen from Butan presented to the 

 India- House collection by Major Pemberton. We suspect that 

 its reputed existence in the Malay countries needs confirma- 

 tion. 



In addition to the names above cited. Dr. Gray in his Cata- 

 logue of the specimens of Mammalia in the British Museum 

 (1843) refers the following name and synonyms to this species : 

 S. MURiNUs, L. ; S. myosuruSj Pallas ; S. indicus et S. capensis, 

 Geofiroy; S, Sonneratii, Is. Geofiroy; S. crassicaudatus, Lich- 

 tenstein ; S. nipalensis, Hodgson, and S. moschatus, Robinson. 

 The last two are merely MS. names ; and indeed the zoological 

 appellations in Mr. W. Robinson's ' Descriptive Account of 

 Asam ' are given pretty much at random, and would establish a 

 most extraordinary community of species among the Mammalia 

 of that country and of Europe ! He gives, " Genus Mygale. 

 Sorex moschatus, Cuvier. The common Musk Rat." Now Sorex 

 moschatus, L. (nee Cuvier), is the type of the genus Mygale of 

 Cuvier ; altered to Myogalea, Fischer [Myogale apud Riippell), 

 because pre-occupied by Linnseus for a well-known genus of 

 spiders ; and Myogalea moschata is a Russian animal, gene- 

 rically differing from Mr. Robinson's Musk Shrew. Nevertheless 

 his adoption of the term moschatus would seem to indicate the 

 rankly-smelling S. c^rulescens rather than S. murinus (v. 

 myosurus), which is the only Shrew mentioned in Prof. Walker's 

 list of the Mammalia of the same province. 



S. Indicus, Geoffroy, v. S. Sonneratii, Is. Geoffroy, is accepted 

 as a distinct species from S. c^rulescens in Dr. Horsfield's 

 Catalogue of the specimens of Mammalia in the India- House 

 Museum (1851) ; and a specimen is noted from the Dukhun, 

 presented by Col. Sykes, and the following habitat given for the 

 species — '^Continent and islands of India." Col. Sykes terms 

 it the Chuchouder of the Mahrattas ; being the same name which 

 is applied to S. ciERULEscENS in Bengal, spelt Choochundr by 

 Dr. Cantor (J. A. S. xv. 191) ; and the latter author gives " Chin- 

 chorot of the Malays of the Peninsula," as the name of the very 

 distinct species referred by him and others to S. murinus, L. ; 

 which latter was originally described from Java. According 



