CROCIDURA. 



173 



ance of being' nearly nude. There is a seminude area around 

 the urino-genital orifice eontiuaous with the seminude skin 

 of the under surface' of the tail. The tail is very thick at 

 the base in the males, and has the appearance of being 

 round, while in reality it is broader than it is deep from 

 above downwards ; like the hinder feet it is somewhat variable 

 iu length. It is marked by fine, much interrupted con- 

 centric rings, 25 to 30 to half an inch, and between these 

 short white hairs occur, but so sparsely as in no way to 

 obscure the skin, and at intervals of about quarter of an 

 inch, long, isolated, white ha;irs occur to within half an inch 

 of the tip of the tail. The fur varies in length, probably 

 according to climate and seasonal changes. It is generally 

 pure grey, but the tips of the hairs in adults are generally 

 yellowish grey, so that animals have not unfrequently a pale 

 fawn tint mixed with greyish, and in Assam specimens the 

 fur is marked with reddish brown. All the seminude parts 

 are pinkish flesh-coloured. The colour, however, is darkest 

 in youth, when it is dark slate-grey, and palest in adult life, 

 when it appears to become more rufous. The female (5), killed 

 along with the male ^4), has a decided rufous tint all over the 

 upper parts ; so much so that the colour may be described as 

 rufous fawn, with a slight greyish tint on the side, the under 

 surface also being grey with a rufous tint. In this gravid 

 female the fur is extremely short, while in the male it is 

 much longer. 



The following ipe asurements may be given of both sexes : — 



' The height of the ear is taken in a straight line from below the 

 orifice, and the breadth is measured from the centre of a straight line between 

 the upper and lower ends of the conch, backwards to its free margin. 



