48 ANIMALS IN MENAGERIES. 



lowish chestnut, and the fur of the back shghtly varied 

 with white : the colours, however, are subject to vari- 

 ation ; Dr. Horsfield describes a variety wherein there 

 is a collar of a lighter brown, inclining to chestnut, and 

 extending entirely round the neck. The head, from the 

 figure given by Dr. Horsfield, has a much greater re- 

 semblance to that of a sheep than to any of the true 

 bats; the muzzle is much prolonged; and the ears, in 

 comparison, are very small. 



The Russian Desman. 



Mygale Miiscovita, Cuv. 



Of the desman, or, as it has been called by Pennant, 

 the Musk Shrew, it is now ascertained that two species 

 have been confounded under one. The original species 

 is now designated after its native country, Russia; while 

 the second, vv^hich seems to have a much more limited 

 range, has hitherto been found only at the foot of the 

 Pyrenees, near Tarbes. The habits of the Russian des- 

 man are so essentially aquatic, that it is not adapted to 

 live in ordinary menageries ; yet it might very well be 

 introduced in such inclosed parts of the Garden of 

 Plants as contain ponds, or in the Zoological Gardens. 



The Russian musk shrew passes the greatest part of 

 its life either in or beneath the water, never choosing a 

 dry place of residence ; and if they proceed from one 

 pond to another, they generally do so by forming a sub- 

 terraneous passage, or by passing along ditches which 

 connect both. Although they inhabit, generally, the 

 sides of ponds, lakes, and stagnant water, they seem to 

 evince a decided preference for low inundated grounds, 

 surrounded by banks, as it is in these latter that their 

 burrows invariably occur. Their mode of constructing 

 these habitations is curious: they make an entrance to 

 the intended burrow under the water ; from this point 

 they dig on in a slanting direction upwards, elevating 

 their work, by degrees, in multiplied and lengthened 

 windings, which sometimes are so extended as to occupy 



