SOREX CJSRULESCENS. 53 



Shrews are found over all the old continent. Several genera have been 

 formed of late, founded on some peculiarities of dentition. 



Gen. SOREX, Linnseus, as restricted. 



Syn. Pachyura, DE SELYS LONGCHAMPS. Crocidura, WAGNER. 



Char. Upper front teeth large and strongly hooked, and much longer 

 than their posterior spur ; inferior incisors entire, or rarely so much as 

 a trace of a serrated upper edge ; following those in the upper jaw are 

 four teeth anterior to the scissor-too th, the first large, the next two 

 much smaller, the third exceeding the second, and the fourth diminutive. 

 Teeth generally wholly white. Ear-conch very distinct. Tail thick 

 and tapering, and furnished with a few long scattered hairs, which cer- 

 tain species likewise exhibit upon the body. 



This genus includes the majority of those shrews that inhabit tropical 

 countries. Some of them do not appear to be furnished with the musk- 

 gland. 



69. Sorex caerulescens. 



SHAW. BLYTH, Cat. 244. S. indicus, giganteus and Sonneratii, GEOF- 

 FROY. S, myosurus, GRAY, figd. HARDWICKE, 111. Ind. Zool. Ckac- 

 hdndar, H. Sondeli, Can. Musk-rat of Europeans. 



THE COMMON MUSK SHREW. 



Descr. Of an uniform bluish- ash or pale gray colour, very slightly 

 tinged with ferruginous, and most so on the hinder parts ; naked parts 

 flesh-coloured. 



Length, head and body, 6 to 7 J inches; tail, 3J to nearly 4. The skull 

 of an adult male, according to Blyth, If ; caudal vertebrae, 24 in number. 



This appears to be the common musk-rat of almost all India, fre- 

 quenting houses at night, and hunting round rooms for cockroaches or 

 any other insects, occasionally uttering a sharp, shrill cry. It wil 

 not, however, refuse meat, for it is sometimes taken in rat-traps baited 

 with meat. It is popularly believed in India that the musky odour 

 emitted by this shrew is so volatile and penetrating, that f it pass over 

 a corked bottle of wine or beer, it will infect the fluid within ; and 

 certainly many bottles are met with in this country quite und linkable 

 from the musky odour. I much doubt, however, the possibility of in- 

 fection in this way, and think it much more probable that the corks of 

 such bottles were impregnated previously to being used in bottling, and 



