asant to think that such barbarities have now ceased, for though
shrew ashes are to be found in various parts of England, I have never
heard (in my own county, Derbyshire, at least) of the necessity for
their use. In an article I contributed to a magazine some thirteen
years ago, I pointed out a coincident superstition prevailing in
India. Whilst marching as a Settlement officer in the district of
Seonee, I noticed that one of my camels had a sore back and on
inquiring into the cause was told by the natives that a musk-rat (our
commonest shrew) had run over him. Jerdon also remarks that in
Southern India (Malabar) the bite of _S. murinus_ is considered
venomous, and so it is in Bengal.

_GENUS SOREX_ (_Linn_.).

SYNONYM.--_Pachyura_, De S. Long; _Crocidura_, Wagner.

[Figure: Dentition of Shrew (magnified).]

DESCRIPTION.--Upper front teeth large; "inferior incisors entire,
or rarely so much as the trace of a serrated upper edge;" between
these and the first cutting molar four teeth as follows: large, small,
middling, very small; teeth wholly white; tail thick and tapering,
with a few scattered hairs, some with glands secreting a pungent
musky odour, some without.

NO. 125. SOREX CAERULESCENS.
_The Common Musk Shrew, better known as Musk-rat_.

NATIVE NAME.--_Chachhunder_, Hind.; _Sondeli_, Canarese.

HABITAT.--India generally.

DESCRIPTION.--Bluish gray, sometimes slightly mouse-coloured;
naked parts flesh-coloured.

SIZE.--Head and body, 6 to 7 inches; tail 3-1/2 to 4 inches.

This little animal is almost too well known, as far as its appearance
is concerned, to need much description, though most erroneous ideas
prevail about its habits. It is proverbially difficult to uproot an
old-established prejudice; and, though amongst my friends I have
been fighting its battles for the poor little shrew for years, I doubt
whether I have converted many to my opinions. Certainly its
appearance and its smell go strongly against it--the latter
especially--but even here its powers are greatly exaggerated. I
think by this time the old fallacy of musk-rats tainting beer and
wine in bottles by simply running over them is exploded. When I came
out in 1856 it was a common thing at the mess table, or in one's own
house, to reject a bottle of beer or wine, because it was
"musk-ratty;" but how seldom is the complaint made now since
country-bottled beverages are not used? Jerdon, Kellaart, and every
Indian naturalist scouts