1855. J A llemoir on the Indian species of Shrews. 37 



prove to differ in other and more important particulars ; even though 

 it may exhibit the adaptive characters of an enlarged and ciliated 

 hind-foot and compressed and ciliated tail-tip. It is thus described. 

 18. Ce. himalayicus, Gray, Ann. Mag. N. H. X, 261 (1842). 

 " Length of head and body 5j in. ; tail 3 in. : hind-foot f in. (nearly). 

 Slate-coloured black, with scattered long hairs, which are longer 

 and white-tipped on the sides and rump : lower part of the throat 

 and the middle of the belly rusty-brown : tail elongate, scaly, with 

 appressecl dark brown hairs above and elongate rigid whitish hairs 

 beneath, and brown elongated rigid hairs near the tip : feet rather 

 naked : whiskers numerous, elongate, brown. Teeth white" Pro- 

 bably^from the neighbourhood of Simla or Masuri, 



In the other type of dentition the lower quasi-incisors are dis- 

 tinctly serrated, with three or four coronal points ; and the anterior 

 point of the upper quasi-incisors is not prolonged beyond a level 

 with its posterior spur : the lateral small teeth which follow in the 

 upper jaw are five in number, and diminish gradually in size from 

 the first backward. Tail cylindrical, not tapering, and furnished 

 with a stiffish brush at its extremity. Such is the common British 

 land Shrew, S. vulgaris, L. (formerly confounded by British writ- 

 ers with S. ARAtfEus, Schreber), and which is the type of Corsira, 

 Gray (v. Amphisorex, No. 1, Duvernoy, apud Gray). There are 

 many other species.* "We refer to it doubtfully 



19. C. (?) caudata ; Sorex caudatiis, Hodgson, Horsfield's Cata- 

 logue (1851) : for the description seems to indicate a species closely 

 affined to the European S. alpinus, Schinz ; a skull-less example of 

 which, from Mt. St. Gothard, is in our museum ; and S. alpinus is 

 ranged among the species having the Corsira type of dentition by 

 Prof. Schinz in his Synopsis Mammalium : its tail, however, is nak- 

 ed and compressed at tip. " Length of the head and body 2J in. ; 

 of the tail the same, slender, nearly naked, and very slightly atte- 



* Blaria, Gray, (v. Blarina, Lesson), is founded on S. talpoides, Gapper, 

 Zool. Journ. V, 28, referred by Blainville to S. brevjcaudus, Say ; a N. Ame- 

 rican species, which, we believe, only differs from Cousira in the large size of 

 its fore-feet, and in its very short tail : — and Otisorex, Dekuy, is founded on 

 two minute N. American species, which do not appear to differ from Corsira 

 except in having the ear-conch large and conspicuously visible above the fur. 



