NATURAL HISTORY. 
358 
THE BULATJ * 
We shall find, as we advance with our examination of the Insectivorous Mammals, that the 
characters presented by these creatures, especially in their anatomical structure, are in many instances 
so curiously combined that it becomes a matter of considerable difficulty to decide to what particular 
family a given animal should be referred, the external and structural peculiarities often pointing in two 
different directions, but generally tending in a remarkable manner in these anomalous forms towards 
the great family of the Shrews, which may be regarded as the central types of the whole order. This 
is the case with the Bulan (Gymnum Rafflesvi), a curious animal which was originally discovered in 
Sumatra by Sir Stamford Baffles, and described by him as a Civet, under the name of Viverra gymnum. 
Vigors and Horsfield in England, and Lesson in France, recognised its distinctness from the Civets, 
and formed it into a distinct genus under the name of Gymnum , designating the species after 
TIIE BULATJ. 
its discoverer, and this name has been generally adopted, although De Blainville afterwards proposed 
to call the genus RJchinosorex, and to retain Baffles’ specific name. 
De Blainville’s name may be taken to express in general terms the peculiar characters of the 
animal, which is a Ilcdgehog-like Shrew, or a Shrew like Hedgehog, the latter being the more correct 
term. The Bulau, as Professor Gervais says, is u a Hedgehog, with the body, and especially the head, 
more elongated than in those already described, with flexible hairs, and furnished with a tail which is 
nearly naked, and as long as the body.” It has also a larger number of teeth, there being forty-four 
in all, namely, on each side, in each jaw, three incisors, one canine (that in the upper jaw with two 
roots), and seven premolars and molars which closely resemble those of the true Hedgehogs. On the 
back a few stiff bristles are mingled with the softer hairs, as if to give a soil; of indication of the 
animal’s relationship to the Hedgehogs ; but it has no power of rolling itself up into a ball. 
The Bulau has a long, round, tapering, scaly tail, almost like that of a Bat, but with a greater 
number of scattered still hairs among the scales. Its head is long, and its muzzle produced into a short 
proboscis. Its legs are rather short, and its feet, which are adapted to plantigrade progression, are 
furnished with five toes, each armed with a curved and pointed claw. The general colour of the body 
and limbs is black or greyish-black, with the head and neck pale or whitish, and with a black streak 
* Gymnura Rafflesii. 
