26 A Memoir on the Indian species of Shrews. [No. 1. 



greatest breadth of skull of former, |£ in. ; of latter, 1 in. Colour 

 uniform pale grey, slightly tinged with ferruginous, and more conspi- 

 cuously on the lower parts ; the naked parts flesh-coloured. 



This is the common large Musk Shrew of Bengal, Nepal, and we 

 believe the valley of Asam ; becoming rare in Sylhet ; and wholly 

 disappearing in Arakan. In Nepal, Mr. Hodgson styles it " the 

 common House Shrew of the plains, and also of the hills, up at least 

 to 6000 ft." We have seen specimens from the neighbourhood of 

 Agra : but whether it be the common Musk Shrew of S. India is 

 doubtful on pre sent evidence ; though Dr. Kelaart's description of 

 the Cinghalese animal corresponds. It certainly does not appear to 

 inhabit the eastern coast of the Bay of Bengal, from Arakan to the 

 straits of Malacca. Dr. Horsfield gives as its habitat "India gene- 

 rally, and the eastern islands j" and he notes a specimen from Butan 

 presented to the India-house collection by Major Pemberton. We 

 suspect that its reputed existence in the Malay countries needs con- 

 firmation. 



In addition to the names above cited, Dr. Gray, in his Catalogue 

 of the specimens of mammalia in the British Museum (1843), refers 

 the following name and synonymes to this species. S. mueinus, 

 L. : S. myosurus, Pallas : S. indicus et S. capensis, Geoffroy : S. Son- 

 neratii, Is. Geoffroy : S. crassicaudatus, Lichtenstein : S. nipalensis, 

 Hodgson : and S. moschatus, Robinson. The last two are merely 

 MS. names ; and indeed the zoological appellations in Mr. W. 

 Eobinson's ' Descriptive account of Asam' are given pretty much at 

 random, and would establish a most extraordinary community of 

 species among the mammalia of that country and of Europe ! He 

 gives, " Genus Mygale. Sorex moschatus, Cuvier. The common 

 Musk Eat." Now Sorex moschatus, L. (nee Cuvier), is the type of the 

 genus My gale of Cuvier ; altered to Mfogalea, Fischer {Myogale 

 apud Biippell), because pre-occupied by Linnseus for a well known 

 genus of Spiders : and Myogalea moschata is a Eussian animal, 

 generically differing from Mr. Eobinson's Musk Shrew. Nevertheless, 

 his adoption of the term moschatus would seem to indicate the rankly 

 smelling S. cjeeulescens, rather than S. mueinus (v. myosurus), 

 which is the only Shrew mentioned in Prof. Walker's list of the mam- 

 malia of the same province. 



