120 Mr. O. Thomas on a 



liairs slaty at base, but tlie slaty quite Iiicklen by tlie whitish 

 tips, so tliat the colour is not a mixed slaty and white, as is 

 more usual in shrews ; line of demarcation on sides fairly 

 well marked. Hands and feet white. Tail greyish white 

 above, white below, with a fair number of the usual longer 

 bristles. 



Skull very like that of C. ilfusig in its small size and short 

 muzzle. Teeth about as in that species, the incisors less 

 prominent than in C. i-nssuLi. 



Dimensions of the ty])e (measured on skin) : — 



Head and body 57 mm. ; tail 35 ; hind foot 12*5 ; 

 ear \K 



Skull: condylo-incisive lentjth 17"5; basal length 15'5 ; 

 peatest breadth 8'3 ; front of P to back of m' 7'8; front of 

 ji* to back of in^ -i'S ; tip of P to tip of // 4; back of t' to 

 front of y>' 1*8 ; breadth of palate across ?n' 5'6. 



//'///. Ramleh, S.Ii!. of Jaffn, Palestine. 



Tijpe. Adult skin and skull. B.M. no. 19. 4. 11. 9. Col- 

 lectiid and presented by Major Maurice Portal. 



This pretty little gre}'' shrew has clearly nothing to do with 

 the C. russida group, of which a local form — C. r.judaica — 

 was described recently. C. russida has a much longer muzzle, 

 with larger and more dominant incisors, while in the [)resent 

 form the incisors are conii)aratively small. C. ilejisis, a species 

 described by Miller from a specimen now in the British 

 Museum, seems really its nearest ally, and of this, besides the 

 type, we have a considerable series from Djarkent (Ruckheif) 

 and Samarkand [Carruthers). These, however, all have 

 shorter tails and are of a decidedly darker grey, not unlike 

 that of European C. russu/a. 



On the other hand, there have recently been received from 

 Baluchistan, collected by (JdI. Ernest Hotson, four shrews 

 very similar in proportions to C. portali, and, while rather 

 variable in colour, averaging much lighter than C. ilensis, 

 one of them, in fact, being of precisely the same pale grey as 

 the type of C. portaH. These specimens jierhaps indicate 

 that this pale shrew will be found to extend ri;j;ht across 

 Persia, but until that country is better exi)lored, tiiis cannot 

 be definitely asseited. 



Of older known species none seems to enter into question, 

 as they are moslly larger — at least as large as (.'. russida, — the 

 only doubtful one being Sore.v ffineliiii, Pallas, from *' Hyr- 

 cania,'* the country on the S.E. coast of the (':ispian Sea. 

 It, however, would swm to be more strongly drabl)y, /. e. 

 as in }-ussid(i and ih-nsis, while its generally insufKcient 



