THE JAPANESE AND HIS BROTHER. 339 
know nothing about, but with my friend from 
the North-west I am much more familiar; and I 
shall endeavour to introduce him to you as life- 
like as I can, from what I have jotted down in 
my notebook. First, then, the Urotrichus is an 
insectivorous mammal, its size that of a large 
shrew, about two-and-a-quarter inches in length, 
exclusive of tail, which is about an inch and a 
half. This tail is covered thickly with long hairs, 
which at the tip end in a tuft like a fine camel’s- 
hair pencil, and from this hairy tail it gets the 
name, Urotrichus. 
Its colour is bluish-black when alive, but in 
the dried specimens changes to sooty-brown. 
The hair is lustrous, and, where it reflects the 
light, has a hoary appearance, and, as with the 
mole, it can be smoothed in either direction; this 
is a wise and admirable arrangement, as it enables 
the animal to back through its underground roads, 
as well as to go through them head-first. Its 
nose or snout is very curious, and much like that 
of a pig—only that it is lengthened out into a 
cylindrical tube, covered with short thick hairs, 
and terminated in a naked fleshy kind of bulb or 
gland; and this gland is pierced by two minute 
holes, which are the nostrils. Each nostril has a 
little fold of membrane hanging down over it like 
Z 25 
