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Show 576 MR G. E. DOBSON ON THE GENUS MYOSOREX. [NOV. 15, incisor is much smaller than the anterior maxillary tooth, and the penultimate premolar is minute, quite invisible from without, and placed in the small angle between the adjoining teeth. The most remarkable peculiarity, however, is found in the mandible, where (as first pointed out by me in the Journ. Anat. Phys. xx. p. 359, 1886) a minute tooth exists on each side between the second and third teeth, so that the number of mandibular teeth is fourteen instead of twelve, as we find in all other known species of Soricida. (For measurements see table p. 578.) Hab. South Africa (Namaqua-Land, Cape Colony, Natal). 2. MYOSOREX MORIO. Crocidura morio, Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1862, p. 1801. Smaller than Myosorex varius and about the size of a large specimen of Crocidura aranea, but distinguished at once, not only from all species of the genus, but also from all known species of Soricida, by the comparatively enormous size of the lateral gland2, which, in the male, occupies a circular space having a diameter of 9 millimetres, larger than the space occupied by the same gland in the Great Indian Musk-Shrew (Crocidura ccerulescens), and by the nakedness of the sides and abdomen below and behind these srlands. Ears moderate, clothed with very short hairs ; manus and pes covered with short hairs. Fur dark reddish brown above, and slightly paler beneath. Tbe first upper incisor is long, the anterior cusp much longer than the posterior, which, however, is well developed ; the third incisor is shorter than the anterior maxillary tooth ; but the greatest peculiarity exists in the comparatively large size of the penultimate premolar, which, viewed externally, though not half the size of the anterior maxillary tooth, stands quite in the tooth-row, and its cusp equals or slightly exceeds (in specimens in which it is not worn) the anterior basal cusp of the last premolar. The last upper molar is like that of Myosorex varius, larger than in the species of the genus Crocidura, its posterior part being as well developed as the corresponding tooth in that species. The first mandibular tooth has two very distinct notches as in Myosorex varius ; the second tooth is unicuspidate and has this peculiarity that, instead of being placed almost altogether on the first tooth, its base very slightly overlies it; 1 " Uniform rather brownish black, rather paler and browner beneath. Teeth white. Feet very slender, weak. Tail nearly as long as the body and head, very slender, annulated, covered with very short closely adpressed hair. " Length of body and head, dry, 2f inches ; tail, dry, 2 inches."-Gray, I. c. It m a y be seen that it would be impossible from this description alone to identify not merely the species but even the genus, nevertheless, as the type, a skin, corresponds in all respects to the well-preserved specimen in alcohol from which I have taken m y description of this species, I retain Dr. Gray's specific title. 2 Having shown the glands in this species to Mr. G. A. Boulenger, he remarked that an integumentary gland occupies a corresponding position on each side of the body in several species of the genus Paludicola (Batrachia); of very large size in some species (P. bufonium, Bell, e. g.), in others of the same genus it is so small as to render it very difficult to say whether a gland exists or not. |