CROCIDURA. 237 



Bengal form, and also the var. falvo-cinerea, from Assam and 

 Arakan, equal iu size to typical G. cceralea, but fawn-coloured 

 above. 



DistrihiUlon. India, Ceylon, and Burma, in towns and about 



human habitations ; also in some of the o;her ports on the Indian 



Ocean, probably carried thither in ships. There is in the British 



' Museum a specimen of a musk shrew, probably O. ccendea or 



O. marina, obtained on board ship by Sir John Kirk. 



Habits. It appears doubtful whether this shrew is ever found 

 away from human habitations, and Mr. Dobson has suggested to 

 me the idea that O. coindea is merely, like the cockroaches on 

 which it feeds, a semi-domesticated val'iety, C. marina being the 

 original wild type. I think this view very probable. It is, in 

 some cases, very difficult to determine to which of the two forms 

 specimens should be referred, and in all probability wherever they 

 meet they breed together. 



Like all other shrews, the common musk shrew is nocturnal, 

 frequenting houses at night and hunting about roo;ns for cock- 

 roaches and other insects, uttering at tinges a sharp squeaking cry, 

 and hiding durhig the day in holes, drains, &c. It is a harmless 

 inoffensive animal, and does much service to man by destroying 

 insects. Its diurnal haunts are liable to smell strongly of the 

 secretion* from the lateral glands, but it does not communicate 

 the smell to anything it merely passes over, unless it is disturbed 

 or frightened. 



The food of this shrew consists mainly of insects, but meat is 

 occasionally eaten by it. Stenidale quotes from the ' Asian ' an ac- 

 count of one that attacked a large frog, and McMaster met with 

 another feeding upon a scorpion. The latter also relates that he 

 lias known this shrew to eat bread. It is commonly accused iu 

 India of feeding on rice and pulse ; but experiments made by An- 

 derson on individuals kept alive by him showed that tliey refused 

 to touch any kind of grain, but devoured insects, especially cock- 

 roaches, freely, and he found no vegetable food of any kind in 

 the stomachs of several he examined. 



I can find nothing recorded as to the breeding-habits of this 

 species. The young are born blind. 



119. Crocidura macropus. 27ic Ionr/-clawed Shrew. 



Sorex macropu?, Bh/tli, J. A. S. B. xx, p. 163 (18.51). 

 Corsira newera ellia, Kdnart, A. M. N. H. ser. 2, viii, p. oo8 (1851). 

 Feioculiis macropus, Kelaart, Prod. p. 32; Bhjtli, J. A. S. B. xxiv, 

 p. 35. 



Upper teeth 18. Size moderately large ; tail tapering, thinly 



* Tlie absurd story tbat wine or beer becomes impregnated with a musky- 

 taste in consequence of this shrew passing over tlie bottles (a story related with 

 implicit faith, together with many other marvellous fables, by the naturalists 

 of the last century) is less credited in India than it formerly was, owing to the 

 discovery that liquors bottled in. Europe and exported to India are not liable 

 to be tainted. 



