CEOCIDUEA (CEOCIDUEA) OLIVIEEI. 
1G7 
fell from the talons of an eagle-owl shot at by Dr. Walter Innes. In it I am unable to 
discover the lateral gland. 
All the skulls of this species at my disposal are imperfect, but the most important 
dimensions are :— 
Cairo. Zagazig. 
miT). min. 
Greatest breadth of maxillae. 8'9 8-2 
Interorbital breadth. S’S 5 
Breadth of snout. 3 3 
Tip of first incisor to tip of large premolar. 6'5 6 5 
The British Museum contains a nice series of this shrew, obtained in the month of May 
by Messrs. J. W. H. & R. J. Cuninghame near Mena House, where they were found in 
the dry wells. Further than this, the habits of this shrew are unknown. Mr. R. J. 
Cuninghame was unable to discover the whereabouts of the animal in winter ; it is 
certain they did not live in the wells, which were full of water at that season. 
I am not aware of any published account of recent specimens of this shrew; like 
the next species, it was hitherto known only in the mummy state. 
Olivier found this shrew embalmed in the subterranean rock-tombs at Sakkarah, near 
Aquisir. The following is an abridged account of the incident as told at length in 
Chapter VIII. of the ‘ Voyage en Egypte ’:— 
“ After passing through many chambers we stopped in one of more than thirty feet 
wide. The whole of one end was tilled with jars piled up one upon the other to the 
ceiling. 
“ These jars were from twelve to eighteen inches long. The mouth was wider than 
the base, and was from five to seven inches in diameter. They were made of very coarse, 
reddish terra cotta, with a convex lid of the same material, fixed to the jar with a 
sort of greyish clay. The mummy which they covered was wrapped in bandages of 
linen or cotton, of rather fine texture, and enveloped in a thread network more or less 
well made. In most of these jars was found the mummy of an Ibis, the majority of 
which were in a bad state of preservation. On opening a mummy perfectly resembling 
the others, we were surprised to find, instead of an Ibis, the bones of a little quadruped. 
It was easy to judge by their number that several individuals had been embalmed 
together; for we took out six entire heads besides others which were broken. These- 
were the remains of a slirew much larger than the European species, unknown to 
naturalists, so, to enable anyone to recognize it again, we here give a description :— 
“ The head measures from an inch to fifteen lines in length, and about six lines in 
breadth behind. In the middle and in front it is very narrow. The upper jaw has 
two incisor teeth, long, strong, sharp, a little curved, notched about the middle of 
their antero-posterior length, where they receive the two lower incisors. Immediately 
