228 DR. J. ANDERSON ON ASIATIC SHREWS. [Mar. 4, 



which have been described from Ceylon by Kelaart, and to those 

 which have been distinguished by Blyth as occurring in Burmah, the 

 Malayan peninsula, and China. 



All the species referred by Blyth * to the genus Sorex, Linnaeus, 

 which I have examined, are white-toothed Shrews, his species S. 

 melanodon being essentially a white-toothed form, to which I shall 

 hereafter have occasion to allude. They belong to 16 species, 

 from the following countries, viz. India proper, Burmah, the 

 Malayan peninsula, and Ceylon. Besides these, 13 other species 

 have been described from Madras, the North-west Himalayan, 

 Nepaul, Sikkim, and Ceylon, all of them apparently white-toothed 

 forms. 



If we analyze these materials, we shall find that one species, Pachy- 

 ura indica, Geoff., is generally distributed over India, that P. murina, 

 Linn., and P. serpentaria, Geoff., of Blyth and Jerdonf, occur in 

 the Malayan countries and Southern India, and that the former 

 passes into Lower Bengal, and that the latter is said to extend to 

 Ceylon, and even to the Mauritius. One minute species, the P. me- 

 lanodon, Blyth, has been described from Lower Bengal, and two 

 species from the Nilgiris. Three species, Sorex heterodon, Blyth, S. 

 atratus, Blyth, and P. griffithii, Horsf., occur in the Khasya hills, the 

 last extending into Aracan. Burmah and the Tenasserim provinces 

 are characterized by two small Shrews, Crocidura fidiginosa, Blyth, 

 and P. nudipes, Blyth, and Ceylon by six other species, besides P. ser- 

 pentaria, already mentioned : — viz., 0. kelaarti, Blyth ; S. macropus, 

 Blyth; S. f err v gin ens, Kelaart; S.montanus, Kelaart; S.purpurascens, 

 Templeton ; and S. horsfieldi, Tomes. The Himalayah, between 

 longitudes 78° and 90° east, have yielded no less than 10 species of 

 Shrews, eight of which were originally distinguished by Hodgson, 

 and the remaining two by Blyth. They are as follows :— S. soccatus, 

 Hodg. ; P. nemorivaga, Hodg. ; S. leucopus, Hodg. ; 5. saturatior, 

 Hodg.; S 1 . sikimensis, Hodg.; S. homurus, Hodg.; S.oligurus, Hodg. ; 

 S. macrurus, Hodg. ; S. hodgsoni, Blyth; and S. tytleri, Blyth. To 

 these I must add the Himalayan Water-Shrew, which is a Crocidura, 

 and two other Shrews with brown-tipped teeth, viz. Crossopus ni- 

 grescens, Gray, and Crossopus alpinus, Schweig. ; so that the total 

 number of the Himalayan Shrews is 13 in all, 11 belonging to the 

 group with wholly white teeth, and two to the other division, distin- 

 guished by its brown-tipped teeth. 



In connexion with the number of species, it is noteworthy that four 

 out of Blyth' s species are founded on single specimens, that one was 

 described from a headless individual, that his C. kelaarti is so young 

 that the premaxillary suture is intact between the second and third 

 small lateral teeth — that his P. melanodon is based on a very young spe- 

 cimen, with the premaxillary suture intact above, but obliterated as it 

 approaches the alveolar border — and that all the other sutures of the 

 skull are unclosed, the frontal and fron to-parietal sutures being almost 



* Blyth has also indicated three other species from the Himaluyah, As. Soc. 

 Journ. vol. xxviii. p. 285. 



t Jerdon's ' Mammals of India' (Cal.). 



