SHREWS. 329 



is, moreover, much less decided than in the latter ; and indeed, when the teeth have, 

 been much worn by long use, tends more or less completely to disappear. 



THE MUSK-SHREWS. 

 Genus Crocidura. 



With the musk-shrews, which include by far the largest representatives of the 

 entire family, we come to the first members of the group characterised by their white 

 teeth. No representatives of the musk-shrews occur in Britain, although the spider 

 musk-shrew (Crocidura aranea), represented on the left side of the illustration on 

 p. 325, and the common musk-shrew (C. suaveolens), shown in the accompanying 



THE COMMON MUSK-SHREW (nat. size). 



figure, occur on the continent of Europe. These shrews, which are of terrestrial 

 habits, have either thirty or twenty-eight teeth, well-developed ears, and a long 

 tail, and are covered with a coat of mingled long and short hairs. The eyes are 

 very small, and placed nearer to the ears than to the tip of the nose. Each side of 

 the body is furnished with a gland (sometimes absent in the female), secreting the 

 musky product from which these shrews derive their popular name. 



More than eighty species of musk-shrews have been described ; the range of 

 the genus embracing Southern and Central Europe, Africa, and Asia. The species 

 with the widest range is the spider musk-shrew, above-mentioned, which is found 

 from North Africa and Central and Southern Europe to Central Asia, extending as 

 far north as North-Eastern Siberia, and as far south as Ladak. It belongs to the 

 typical group of the genus, characterised by having only three small conical teeth 

 behind the large first upper incisor ; and it is a comparatively small species, of about 



