32 NATURAL HISTORY ESSAYS 



cyprinodon fishes, and the oases of M'zab are a 

 refuge for the grey palm rat. Few denizens of the 

 Sahara, however, are more remarkable than the 

 jumping or elephant shrew. 

 V The Algerian elephant shrew [Macroscelides 



7'ozeti) — -far el keil of the Arabs, rat a tro77ipe of 

 the French colonists — is about the size of a small 

 rat. Large-eyed and large-eared, it is remarkable 

 for its long legs and tail, which cause it to super- 

 ficially resemble the jerboa of the same regions; the 

 tawny colour of the fur in both animals is also 

 noteworthy. An examination of the teeth, however, 

 soon demonstrates that there is no true relationship 

 between the two. The incisors of the shrew— red 

 on the anterior surface— are pointed and hence suit- 

 able for seizing forceps-like small active prey, such 

 as insects; those of the jerboa are true rodent shape, 

 squared like a chisel and fitted for gnawing or 

 rasping vegetable substances. The most remarkable 

 feature of the elephant shrew is the strange elonga- 

 tion of the snout into an actual proboscis, flexible 

 like the trunk of a tapir and bearing the nostrils at 

 the end. This trunk is probably a tactile organ, 

 since the long hairs or vibrissae are well developed 

 near the tip; it is used for rooting in the sand, and 

 is possibly prehensile. 



The strange parallelism between shrew and 

 jerboa — not relationship as we have just seen — has, 

 doubtless, been produced by a similarity of environ- 



