533 



PERFUMING SHREW. 



Sorex Caerulescens. S. cwereo-ccerulescens, subtus pattidior, ros- 



tro can da pedibusyue carneis. 



Blue-grey S. with flesh-coloured snout, feet, and tail. 

 Sorex Pilorides. Museum Leverianum, vol. i. No. i. p. 31. t. 8. 

 Perfuming Shrew. Pennant Quadr. 2. p. 222. 

 Musaraigne musquee de 1'Inde. Buff", suppl. 'j.p. z8i.pl. 7. 



THIS measures from nose to tail near eight 

 inches : and the tail is about three inches and a 

 half long: the snout is very long and slender; 

 the upper jaw extending far beyond the lower : 

 the upper fore teeth are short; the lower long, 

 slender, and incurvated: the eyes small, the ears 

 semitransparent, short and round: the fur soft 

 and fine, and the whole animal is of an elegant blue 

 grey colour, paler beneath : the end of the nose and 

 the feet are naked and rose-coloured. This animal 

 diffuses a musky small, so extremely powerful as to 

 penetrate almost every substance which it touches. 

 Mr. Pennant informs us, that he has been as- 

 sured, from good authority, that it has been 

 known to make wine in a well-corked bottle un- 

 drinkable, merely by passing over it. This seems 

 to be the same animal with that described and 

 figured in the 7th supplemental volume of the 

 Count de Buffon's Natural History, under the 

 title of Musaraigne musquee de Vlndt, which is 

 said to have been brought by Mons. Sonnerat from 

 Bengal: the tail, however, in this specimen seems 

 shorter than in that before described, though 



