CATALOGUE. 129 



man : their touch, sight, and hearing are dull : their smell not very 

 acute, though the quickest sense they have ; and hence they are easily 

 taken, having, moreover, little speed, cunning, or ferocity to protect 

 them. I have had many brought to me, and have kept several for a 

 year or two in Nepal, feeding them on rice and milk, or milk only, all 

 of which they like, but wholly refuse rats, fish, insects, snakes, and 

 rarely and reluctantly taking flesh of any kind. I have often put a 

 small live fowl into their cage, but seldom knew them kill, and never 

 eat it, though if it approached them too nearly, they would rush at it 

 and give it a severe and possibly fatal blow with the fore paws. The 

 amenity of their ordinary disposition is finely portrayed in their gentle 

 countenances, and, as they are free from all offensive odour, they would 

 make nice pets for ladies, particularly when young. They drink by 

 lapping with the tongue, and moderately. They hiss and spit like cats 

 when angered, and, if extremely so, utter a short deep grunt, like that 

 of a young bear, but ordinarily they are quite silent. The flesh is never 

 eaten ; but from the prepared pelage caps are made, and that is the 

 limit of their economic value." 



Fam. TALPID^), Gray, Cat. Mamm. Br. 

 Mus. Syst. List. XXL 



x. FOSSORES. a. TALPINA. 

 Genus TALPA, Linn, et al. 

 140. TALPA MICRURA, Hodgson. 



Talpa micrura, Hodgson, Journ. As. Soc. Beng. X.p. 910. 



Calc. Journ. Nat. Hist. IV. p. 288. Gray, Cat. 



Mamm. Br. Mus. p. 75. Cat. Hodgs. Coll. p. 16. 



Schinz, Syn. Mamm. p. 289. 

 ? Talpa cryptura, Blyth, Journ. As. Soc. Beng. XII. 2, 



p. 928. 



Talpa europsea (var. Siberica), Pallas, Z. R. A. I. 126 ? 

 Talpa europaea, Robinson, Assam, p. 96. 

 Mole, Hodgson, Journ. As. Soc. Beng. I. p. 340. 



HAS. Northern and central region of Nepal, Hodgson. 

 Kashmir, Elphinstone. 



A. Presented by B. H. Hodgson, Esq. 



B. Presented by the Asiatic Society of Bengal. 



