58 Mammals of Eastern Asia 
mals are found with the tooth present in one side of the head 
and absent from the other. Should the two groups be in 
reality merely subgenera, Crocidura would take precedence as 
the name for all; it was established in March, 1832, and Suncus 
in September of the same year. Suncus contains relatively few 
species, Crocidura many. In eastern Asia five genera are found 
which belong to the subfamily Crocidurinse : Suncus, Crocidura, 
Anourosorex, Chimarrogale, and Nectogale. 
The House Shrews, Musk Shrews, or "Musk Rats," 
genus Suncus, formerly known as Pachyura, which have a total 
number of 30 teeth, include species as large as small rats. They 
also include a group of "pigmy Shrews" in which the length of 
head and body is less than 2 inches, and some smoky gray forms 
in the Philippines that externally resemble some Crocidura, for 
example, S. luzoniensis. 
One of the best known of the large Shrews is S. coeruleus 
of the Indian Peninsula and Ceylon, an unusually colored species 
— pale gray with a slightly bluish cast in certain lights. The 
length of the head and body in this species varies from 5 to 6 
inches, of the tail from 3 to 4 inches, of the hind foot from 
% to 1 inch. A race, 5. c. fulvocinereus, occurs in Assam. 
Osgood reports coeruleus from Annam. 
Representatives of the same group, colored instead dark 
brownish gray and a little smaller in size, are spread through 
southern China to Japan and into most of the islands of the 
Indo-Australian Archipelago. The general name for this darker 
form is S. murinus. Strictly speaking, this name refers to the 
specimens that come from Java, but it has been widely used for 
animals from Burma and China as well. In certain regions local 
names appear, such as >S\ m. temminckii for the race present in 
Japan, 5*. m. swinhoei of Fukien, 5". m. griffithii of Assam, and 
S. tn. saturatior of Sikkim. 
House Shrews of this type are now almost as closely asso- 
ciated with man as are house rats and house mice, though with 
