FAUNA AMERICANA. 25 



ble book, having a short spur situate at their base ; 

 inferior incisors elon2;atecl, proceeding straight 

 from the alveoles, and are recurved only at their 

 extremity. False canine, particularly the supe- 

 rior, much smaller than the intermediate incisors. 

 Molars with broad crowns, having sharp tubercles, 

 the superior are largest and have the cutting sur- 

 face oblique; head very long; nose elongated and 

 moveable; ears short and rounded; eyes small 

 but visible. 



Tail more or less long, sometimes quadrangular, 

 sometimes partly compressed, at others teretile. 

 Body covered \^^ith fine short hair ; feet terminated 

 by feeble toes, separate, furnished with hooked 

 nails, not proper for digging the earth ; mammae, 

 both pectoral and ventral, to the number of six or 

 eight; a sebaceous gland on each flank, surround- 

 ed by stiff and compact hairs, secreting an oily 

 liquor. 



Habit. In summer, living in holes ; in winter, 

 penetrating hay-mows ; feeding on worms and in- 

 sects ; of slow progression ; during the rutting 

 season they diffuse a strong odour; hence their 

 vulgar name, " pole-cat shrew." 



Inhabit temperate climates of both continents, 



Species. 



1. Sorex constrictus, Herman, obs. Zool. p. 47. 

 Bodd. Elench. Anim. p. 123. Sp. 4. Geoff. Ann. 

 Mus. d'hist. Nat. t 17, p. 178. Sp. 6. pi. 3, fig. 1, 



4 



