258 THE GEOGRAPHY OF MAMMALS 



Tree-shrews, with two genera and about fifteen species, is 

 likewise confined to the Oriental Resrion, and forms another 

 characteristic group of that Region. 



In the third family of Insectivorous Mammals the 

 Macroscelidte, or Jumping Shrews, which, though held to 

 represent the Tree-shrews in Africa, are very different in 

 appearance and are essentially terrestrial in their habits, 

 must be considered as a purely Ethiopian type, though one 

 form (Macvoscelides rozeti) has crossed the limits of the 

 Ethiopian Region into Algeria. 



The fourth family of Insectivora, the Erinaceidze, or 

 Hedgehogs, are rather more widely diffused. The true 

 Hedgehogs (Erinaceus), of which about fourteen species 

 are known, are spread all over the Ethiopian Region 

 except Madagascar, and are likewise found in the Oriental 

 and PaLearctic Regions. The second genus of Erinaceidie 

 (Gymnura), of which two species are distinguished, is 

 restricted to the Oriental Region. 



In the fifth sub-family of this Order the Soricidte, or 

 Shrews, we find the most numerous and the most widely 

 extended mammals of this group. Though these little 

 animals are still very imperfectly known and many more 

 species must remain to be discovered, they already number 

 some 125 species. These are spread over nearly the whole 

 earth except the Australian Region and the Neotropical 

 Region, where, however, in the northern borders two or 

 three species are known to occur. The Musk-shrews 

 (Crocidura) are the most numerous of all the genera, more 

 than eighty species of these little animals having been 

 already described. They are found in Africa and Mada- 

 gascar and are also numerous in the Oriental and Palse- 

 arctic Regions, but do not occur at all in the New World. 



