INSECTIVORA. 55 



SOREX, Linnaeus. 



The Shrews are generally small, and covered with hair. Under this, and 

 upon each flank, there is a small band of stiff, thickly set setae, from between 

 which oozes an odorous fluid, the product of a peculiar gland. The two middle 

 upper incisors are hooked and dentated at their base, the lower ones slanting 

 and elongated: five small teeth on each side follow the first, and two only the 

 second. There are moreover in each jaw three bristled molars, and in the 

 upper one the last is a small tuberculous tooth. This animal lives in holes 

 which it excavates in the earth, and which it seldom leaves till evening; they 

 live on worms and insects. 



Sor. araneus, L. (The Common Shrew.) Grey above ; ash-coloured beneath ; 

 tail square, and not so long as the body by one-third; teeth white; ears naked 

 and exposed; common in the fields, &c. There are several other species, one 

 of which (the Rat-tailed Shrew) the Egyptians were in the habit of embalming. 



MYGALE, Cuvier. 



The Desmans differ from the Shrews in two very small teeth placed between 

 the two great lower incisors, and in their two upper incisors which are flattened 

 and triangular. Behind these incisors are six are seven small teeth and four 

 bristled molars. Their snout is drawn out into a little flexible proboscis, which 

 they keep constantly in motion. Their long tail, scaly and flattened on the 

 sides, with their feet of five fingers all united by membranes, evidently 

 proclaim them to be aquatic animals. Tneir eyes are very small, and they 

 have no external ears. 



Sorex moschatw, L. (The Russian Musk Rat.) Nearly as large as a Shrew ; 

 above blackish, beneath whitish; tail not so long as the body by one-fourth. 



This species is very common along the rivers and lakes of Southern Russia, 

 where it feeds on worms, the larva of insects, &c., which it easily draws out of 

 the mud, by means of its flexible snout. Its burrow is usually in a bank 

 commencing under water, and ascending so as to be above its level even in 

 the greatest floods. 



CHRYSOCHEORIS, Lacepede. 



Animals of this genus, like those of the preceding one, have two incisors above 

 and four below ; but their grinders are long, distinct, and almost all shaped like 

 triangular prisms. Their muzzle is short, broad, and recurved, and their fore 

 feet have only three nails, of which the external, which is very large, much 

 arcuated and pointed, serves them as a powerful instrument for excavating and 

 piercing the earth; the others regularly decrease in size. The hind feet have 

 five of an ordinary size. They are subterraneous animals, whose mode of life 

 is similar to that of Moles. To enable them to dig the better, their fore-arm is 

 supported by a third bone placed under the cubitus. 



