1855.] A Memoir on the Indian species of Shrews. 29 



tail is sufficiently elongated. Length of this Arakan female — head 

 and body 5 in., and tail 3 in. : hind-foot (with claws) | in. Unfor- 

 tunately, we have no Malayan specimen for actual comparison : but 

 there is every reason to suspect that this species replaces S. cjeru- 

 lescens along the whole eastern coast of the Bay of Bengal, and 

 thence through the hilly country northward, to that skirting the 

 valley of Asam. Dr. Horsfield mentions a Nepalese specimen, pre- 

 sented to the India House museum by Mr. Hodgson : but this 

 species is unnoticed in the latter gentleman's Catalogue of JNepalese 

 animals, and especially in his descriptive notices of the Nepalese 

 Shrews, Ann. Mag. JST. IT. XV, 269. With the exception of the 

 small S. tenuis, S. M tiller, from Timor, it appears to be the only well 

 established species of Shrew throughout the great oriental archi- 

 pelago. In the Tenasserim provinces, the Rev. J. Mason states — ■ 

 " We have at least two species of Musk Shrew, both of 'which emit 

 an offensive odour." (Qu. S. murinus and S. serpentarius ?) In 

 S. murinus, according to Dr. Cantor, " the smell of musk, emitted 

 by the adult animal, and which in the young is barely perceptible, is 

 much less intense than in the Bengal Musk Shrew." S. serpen- 

 tarius, according to Dr. Kelaart, has a powerfully offensive musky 

 odour. S. murinus has larger ears than S. c^irulescens ; and 

 Dr. Cantor describes it as — " Dark brownish-grey above, beneath 

 light brownish-grey. Feet and tail flesh-coloured in the living ani- 

 mal, changing to cinereous after death. In the young the colour is 

 more of a bluish-grey, slightly mixed with brown on the back. A 

 stuffed specimen from the Khasya hills has the fur longer and less 

 dense than in S. cjeuulescens, the piles somewhat curly; and co- 

 lour dark ashy at base, wdth rufous-brown tips which give the prevail- 

 ing hue. A most obviously distinct species from S. cje rule sc ens. 

 We suspect that S. Griffithii, Horsfield, of that naturalist's Cata- 

 logue of the specimens of mammalia in the Hon'ble Company's 

 museum, is no other than our presumed murtnus from the Arakan 

 and Khasya hills ; although described from Afghanistan : because 

 we saw a fine skin from Cherra Punji in the possession of the late 

 Mr. Griffith, which was forwarded to the India-house by Mr. 

 McClelland ; and we have previously had occasion to remark that 

 specimens of reptiles procured bv Mr. Griffith in Afghanistan and 



