326 THE INSECTIVORES 



of and another above each of the eyes, and there are frequently some long black 

 hairs on the crown of the head. The terminal third of the tail is generally white. 

 Occasionally specimens are found in Burma of a uniform white color throughout ; 

 these, however, must not be regarded as albinos. The hair is of two kinds a 

 close, soft under-fur and long coarse bristles. 



Raffles' s gymnura is found in the islands of Sumatra and Borneo, 

 in the Malay Peninsula, and in Burma. It is either a rare animal, or 

 on account of its retiring and strictly nocturnal mode of life is but seldom met 

 with. Of its habits we are still ignorant. It is, however, said to make its home 

 beneath the roots of trees ; and, from the contents of the stomachs of specimens 

 that have been examined, we learn that its food consists of different kinds of 

 insects ; cockroaches, white ants, and larvae being apparently its favorites. It is 

 distinguished by a peculiarly disagreeable smell of a somewhat oniony or garlic- 

 like nature. 



Still more rare is the lesser gymnura (G. suilla), a small rusty-brown colored 

 animal, paler beneath, measuring just short of five inches in length, with a tail not 

 exceeding one inch. It occurs in Burma, the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Borneo, 

 and Java, ascending in Borneo to a considerable elevation above the sea level on 

 Mount Kina Balu in the northern part of the island. 



Extinct Insectivores, more or less closely allied to the gymnuras, 



have left their remains in the Tertiary deposits of France belonging to 

 Gymnuras 



the upper portion of the Eocene and the lower part of the Miocene 



period. These extinct forms, although belonging to distinct genera from those now 

 existing, serve to show the antiquity of this group of animals ; and, in common with 

 many others, further indicate how the early Tertiary fauna of Europe has its nearest 

 representatives in the remote islands of the Malayan Archipelago. 



THE SHREWS 

 Family SORICID^E 



The elegant little creatures known as shrews, or shrew-mice, as they are often 

 termed from their mouse-like form, constitute the fourth family of the true Insec- 

 tivores. So like, indeed, are these animals to mice and rats, that in popular estima- 

 tion they are often confounded with them ; although they are readily distinguishable 

 by their long and pointed snouts, their rounded ears, closely pressed to the sides of 

 the head, and the characteristics of their teeth. 



Though there would be little likelihood of mistaking a shrew for a hedgehog, it 

 is necessary to point out in some detail the characteristics on which naturalists refer 

 these groups to separate families ; since as we have seen, the spines of the hedgehogs 

 do not form a characteristic of more than generic importance. 



Perhaps the most ready means of determining whether or no an Insectivore be- 

 longs to the shrew family is afforded by the characteristics of the first pair of front 

 or incisor teeth. In all shrews these teeth are different from the others ; those of 



