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Show 620 MR. R. SWINHOE ON CHINESE MAMMALS. [June 23, soft and mole-like, of a deep brown, with a madder-tint, lighter on the underparts. The membrane extending from the tail to the legs was wrinkled, and covered the tail like a glove, so as to slip up or down as the creature wished to expand or contract its interfemoral wing, or, in nautical language, to shake out or take in reefs. The toes on each hind foot were five in number, of nearly equal length, the outer one thicker, all with longish pale hairs, chiefly at their tips; sides of the upper lip and upper surface of ear furrowed or grooved. Eyes small, and nearly hidden in the recess formed by the protruding ears. The living animal carried two species of parasites, one winged and the other wingless. These have been described and figured by Mr. II. Giglioli, in the * Proceedings of the Microscopical Society' for 1863, as Strebla molossa and Poly-ctenes molossus. I have often, on a cloudless evening, at Amoy, seen these Bats flying along high in the air, being easily distinguished by the narrowness of their wings. When irritated, the creature has a habit of exposing its tail by the process above described, aud of sinking its eye into the socket, and thrusting it out again. INSECTIVORA. 23. TALPA INSULARIS. (Formosan Blind Mole.) Taljja insularis, Swinhoe, P. Z. S. 1862, p. 10. Found in the hills of the north end of Formosa. A Mole occurs about Peking which M . Alphonse M.-Edwards has distinguished as the Scaptochirus davidianus (Annales des Sciences Nat. 5e serie, t. 7), anted, p. 450. 24. TALPA, sp. I have a Mole from Foochow, China, which resembles the Szechuen species ; but, owing to the present troubled state of Paris, I have not been able to compare it. 25. SOREX MURINUS, Linn. (Musk-rat.) Sorex myosurus, Pall. 5. swinhoei, Blyth, J. A. S. xxviii. 285. S. albinus, Blyth. J. A. S. xxix. 90 (the young). The Common " Musk-rat" is found throughout China, Formosa, and Hainan, in houses in large towns. Has an unpleasant musky odour, and a peculiar chatter, like the chinking of money (Swinh. ' Zoologist,' 1858, p. 6224; P. Z. S. 1864, p. 382; P. Z. S. 1870, p. 231). 26. SOREX ? (Small Shrew.) Sorex ?, Swinhoe, P. Z. S. 1864, p. 382. The two little Shrews I took under decayed dung on a hill at Tamsuy, Formosa, and mentioned before (I. ci), I sent in spirits to Paris, but do not at all know what has since become of them. |
