SORICID^E 



627 



Tail long, with an inferior fringe of elongated hairs ; ears small ; 

 plantar callosities simple ; toes free. Habits aquatic. 



This genus includes C. himalayica of the Himalaya and C. platy- 

 cephalus of Japan. Both have the feet fringed, and, together with 

 the next genus, may be regarded as the eastern analogues of Crosso- 

 pus among the red-toothed series ; their structural resemblances to 

 the latter, if Dr. Dobson's classification is a natural one, .being 

 probably due to adaptation for a similar mode of life. 



Nectogale. 1 Dentition : i f , c ^, p ^, m f ; total 28. External 



FIG. 288. Nectogale elegans. (From Milne-Edwards, Mammif. Tibet.) 



ears not forming a conch, valvular. Plantar callosities forming 

 adhesive pads ; toes webbed. Other characters as in Chimarrogale. 

 Habits aquatic. 



The sole representative of this genus is the Tibetan Water- 

 Shrew (N. elegans, Fig. 288), which differs from all other members 

 of the family by the webbed toes and the presence of the disc-like 

 adhesive pads on the under surface of the feet, which are believed 

 to enable the creature to hold on to smooth rocks or stones in the 

 beds of the streams it inhabits. This species is probably more 

 completely aquatic in its habits than the allied Chimarrogale. 



Fossil Soricidce. Eemains of existing species of Sorex or Crasso- 

 pus occur in the Norfolk Forest bed, while an extinct species has 

 been found in the Pleistocene of Sardinia. Crocidura occurs in the 

 cavern-deposits of Madras. Shrews from the Miocene and Upper 



1 Milne-Edwards, Comptes Rendus, vol. Ixx. p. 341 (1870). 



