-Tenasserim (Sumatra, Borneo); Malacca.

[Figure: _Gymnura Rafflesii_.]

DESCRIPTION.--Long tapering head, with elongated muzzle, short legs,
shrew-like body, with a long, round, tapering and scaly rat-like tail,
naked, with the exception of a few stiff hairs here and there among
the scales. In each jaw on each side three incisors, one canine (those
in the upper jaw double-fanged) and seven premolars and molars; feet
five-toed, plantigrade, armed with strong claws. Fur of two kinds,
fine and soft, with longer and more spiny ones intermixed. The colour
varies a good deal, the general tint being greyish-black, with head
and neck pale or whitish, and with a broad black patch over the eye.
Some have been found almost wholly white, with the black eye-streak
and only a portion of the longer hairs black, so that much stress
cannot be laid on the colouring; the tail is blackish at the base,
whitish and compressed at the tip. Mr. Blanford says: "The small
scales covering the tail are indistinctly arranged in rings and
sub-imbricate; on the lower surface the scales are convex
and distinctly imbricate, the bristles arising from the interstices.
Thus the under surface of the tail is very rough, and may probably
be of use to the animal in climbing." He also refers to the fact that
the claws of his specimen are not retractile, and mentions that in
the original description both in Latin and English the
retractability of the claws is pointed out as a distinction between
_Gymnura_ and _Tupaia_. In the description given of the Sumatran
animal both by Dallas and Cuvier nothing is mentioned about this
feature.

SIZE.--A Sumatran specimen: head and body, 14 inches; tail, 12 inches.
Mr. Blanford's specimen: head and body, 12 inches; tail, 8.5.

Mr. Blanford was informed by Mr. Davison, who obtained it in Burmah,
that the _Gymnura_ is purely nocturnal in its habits, and lives under
the roots of trees. It has a peculiar and most offensive smell,
resembling decomposed cooked vegetables. The Bulau has not the power
of rolling itself up like the hedgehog, nor have the similar forms
of insectivores which resemble the hedgehog in some respects, such
as the Tenrecs (_Centetes_), Tendracs (_Ericulus_), and Sokinahs
(_Echinops_) of Madagascar.

CARNIVORA.

Speaking generally, the whole range of mammals between the
_Quadrumana_ and the _Rodentia_ are _carnivorous_ with few
exceptions, yet there is one family which, from its muscular
developm