THE DESMAN. 
375 
DENTITION OF DESMAN. ( Natural Size.) 
side we have six gradually enlarging teeth, a canine, and five premolars.* The true molars are three in 
number on each side in both jaws. They are broad, powerful teeth, with strong acute tubercles, 
and crowns divided transversely into two parts. The eyes are 
small, and there are no visible ears. 
Another peculiarity of these animals is the presence, under 
the root of the tail, of a large gland, which secretes a substance 
of a strong musky odour, whence they are sometimes called 
Musk Shrews. This gland is composed of from twenty to forty 
lobes, each having a dilated upper part, and a narrow lower 
portion, and containing in their walls a great number of small 
secreting sacs. 
The Desman, or Wychuchol of the Russians, is an 
inhabitant of Southern Russia, where it lives in the banks of 
streams and pools, in the region between the Don and the 
V olga. It is also said to occur in some parts of south-western 
Asia. Its body is about ten inches long, and its tail measures about seven inches and a half. The 
latter organ is narrowed at the root, and then nearly cylindrical for some distance, and finally com- 
pressed from near the middle to the extremity, thus forming a most powerful swimming organ, by 
means of which, aided by the broad webbed feet, the Desman makes its way through the water with 
great rapidity. The surface of the tail is scaly, with a scanty sprinkling of short hairs, and with a 
great number of small follicles, which secrete a greasy material. 
The body of the Desman is covered with a dense fur, composed of a thick coat of fine downy hairs 
next the skin, and of longer smooth hairs, which form the outermost coat. It is reddish-brown on the 
back, ashy-grey on the belly, and shows a silvery lustre in certain lights. The feet are naked and 
scaly above, and fringed with hairs at the sides. At the eye, and over the auditory aperture, there are 
whitish spots. 
In its habits the Desman is described as greatly resembling an Otter on a small scale. It lives 
by preference about standing waters and slow streams, especially when these, as is so commonly the 
case in Russia, are confined by steep banks of considerable height. In these banks it makes its 
residence, which is something like that of the Otter, consisting of a passage running obliquely 
upwards from below the surface of the water, often to a length of twenty feet or more, and then 
terminating in a sort of fortress-chamber, three or four feet above the water level. But this 
retreat is only occupied by the animal as a resting place ; the greater part of its time, both in summer 
and winter, being 
in the water. Here it disports itself with an agility of which its rather 
heavy and clumsy figure would hardly appear to give promise; swimming and diving readily, making its 
way among the water-plants, and seeking constantly for the animals which constitute its food. 
These are chiefly leeches, worms, and aquatic mollusca and larvae of insects, but in all probability no 
small aquatic animal would come greatly amiss. The curious movable trunk with which the animal 
is endowed is brought actively into play during the search for provisions. It is turned and t wisted in 
various directions, touching the various objects that come in the way, and is used to feel about for prey, 
which it is said to seize and convey to the neighbouring mouth after the same fashion as the trunk 
of an elephant. The animal is said frequently to put its trunk into its mouth, and then to cry like a 
duck ; when irritated or threatened, it hisses, and tries to bite. The Desman is supposed to produce 
more than one litter in the course of the year. It is pursued for the sake of its skin, which somewhat 
resembles that of the Beaver and Ondatra in its qualities; and great numbers are taken by means of 
nets, especially in the autumn. Its flesh is uneatable, on account of its strong musky flavour, which 
is communicated even to that of the carnivorous fishes, such as the Pike, which, being less nice in their 
tastes, do not object to an occasional Desman. 
THE PYRENEAN DESMAN.* 
The only other species of Desman is found in the small streams of the Pyrenees both in France and 
Spain, where it lives after the same fashion as its Russian relative, but is said to feed principally upon 
* Myoyalc pyrenaica. 
