Miscellaneous, 361 



Extracts from a Letter to Thomas Bell, Esq., F.R.S,, from 

 George Clark, Esq., of Mauritius. 



Port Louis, May 1st, 1848. 



* * * " You have doubtless seen specimens of the musk-shrew, 

 which is so common in most hot countries, and are acquainted with its 

 general habits. You have most likely heard of the singular fact that 

 instinct in them seems totally at fault, by leading them to cry out as 

 soon as discovered, and thus frequently to bring destruction on them- 

 selves. Are you aware that the mammae, instead of being distributed 

 along the abdomen and thorax, as in most other quadrupeds of that 

 sort, (indeed all, as far as I have learnt,) are placed like those of a 

 cow, in the groins, three on each side ? If this fact is new to you, I 

 will send you a specimen in spirit. If the same peculiarity is obser- 

 vable in our English shrew, of which I think the muzzle is equally 

 elongated and tapering, I should think that the dugs are so placed 

 to render suction more easy, from the action of the several nurslings 

 being so concentrated, and thereby causing a greater flow of milk to 

 that spot. From the attenuated muzzle of this creature, the power 

 of suction must be but small, and the same circumstance would en- 

 able the whole brood to suck in such a position as to radiate from 

 a centre. I should be greatly obliged by your opinion on this point. 

 There is another highly interesting fact connected with this little 

 animal, which is strangely at variance with, and may in some degree 

 compensate for, the anomaly of erring instinct just mentioned. If 

 their nest is discovered while the young are in an unfledged state, and 

 before their tiny eyes are open, the mother walks away, and one 

 little one takes hold of her tail, another holding his, and so on, and 

 the whole brood following thus in a line are conveyed to a place of 

 safety. I may conclude by stating that I have never seen more than 

 six of these in one litter, and that all the females I have examined 

 have only six mammae. 



" I have never seen in any other place so great a variety of goats 

 as this place possesses, and the characteristics are so various that 

 I think they may interest you. Among these the largest is generally 

 called here the "up-country goat;" they are of Indian origin, 

 and have enormously long legs with lank and lean bodies and 

 coarse bones. The head is shorter than in the ordinary European 

 goats, and considerably deeper, with a very convex forehead — 

 in many, the profile forms the segment of a circle. The males of 

 this breed have very spreading horns, of considerable length, and 

 spiral in their growth, and they are decidedly less salacious and 

 vigorous than the smaller breeds. The horns of the female are 

 very different, being nearly upright, and rarely exceeding 6 or 7 

 inches in length. Both have a kind of dewlap under the throat, 

 which extends lower in the males than in the females. A very sin- 

 gular feature in them is the ears, which are sometimes very long ; I 

 have seen one female in which they are 19 inches long and 4 J- broad 

 in the widest part. When not long, it is very common to see them 

 crumpled up like a piece of burnt leather, and this peculiarity may 

 be often met with where the parents on both sides had long ears ; 



Ann. $ Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 2. Vol. ii. 25 



