346 
ELEPHANT SHREW AND SONDELT. 
according to the position of the hairs which are exposed to view. The specimen which is 
preserved in the British Museum was captured by Mr. Low in the house of Sir James Brooke, 
the celebrated Rajah of Sarawak. 
It is presumed that the long tail of the Pen-tail is used for the purpose of balancing itself 
in its progress among the branches of trees ; but this conjecture is only problematical, as the 
habits of the animal are not yet known. By the arrangement and form of the teeth, it is sup- 
posed to be allied to the Tupaias. 
The elongation of the nose, which has already been noticed in the Tupaias of Sumatra, 
seems to have reached its utmost limit in those curious inhabitants of the Cape that are called, 
from their elephantine elongation of nose, the 
Elephant Sheews. Several species of Ele- 
phant Shrews are known to exist, all of 
which, with one exception, are inhabitants of 
Southern Africa. The solitary exception, 
Macroscelides Roretti, is found in Algeria. 
The peculiarly long nose of the Elephant 
Shrew is perforated at its extremity by the 
nostrils, which are rather obliquely placed, 
and is supposed to aid the animal in its 
search after the insects and other creatures on 
which it feeds. The eyes are rather large in 
proportion to the size of the animal. 
The tail is long and slender, much re- 
sembling the same organ in the common 
mouse, and in some specimens, probably 
males, is furnished at the base with glandu- 
lar follicles, or little sacs. The legs are 
nearly of equal size, but the hinder limbs are 
much longer than the fore-legs, on account of 
the very great length of the feet, which are 
capable of affording support to the creature as 
it sits in an upright position. As might be 
presumed from the great length of the hinder 
limbs, the Elephant Shrew is possessed of 
elephant shre w . —Macroscelides typicus. great locomotive powers, and when alarmed, 
can skim over the ground with such celerity 
that its form becomes quite obscured by the rapidity of its movement through the air. Its 
food consists of insects, which it captures in open day. 
Although the Elephant Shrew is a diurnal animal, seeking its prey in broad daylight, its 
habitation is made below the surface of the ground, and consists of a deep and tortuous bur- 
row, the entrance to which is a perpendicularly-sunk shaft of some little depth. To this place 
of refuge the creature always flies when alarmed, and as it is so exceedingly swift in its move- 
ments, it is not readily captured or intercepted. 
The color of the fur is a dark and rather cloudy brown, which is warmed with a reddish 
tinge upon the sides and flanks, and fades on the abdomen and inner portions of the limbs 
into a grayish- white. The generic name, Macroscelides, is of Greek origin, in allusion to the 
great length of its hinder limbs, and signifies u long-legged.” It is but a small animal, as the 
length of the head and body is not quite four inches in measurement, and the tail is about 
three inches and a quarter. 
Passing in a regular gradation from the moles to the shrews and hedgehogs, we pause 
for a while at the powerfully scented animal that is called, by virtue of its perfumed person, 
the Musk-Rat of India, and is also known by the titles of Monjoueou, and Sondeli. 
