. Fur and feather in North China . SECTIVOROUS MAMMALS. 57 it in a coating of mud and baking it in the embera of a wood fire. Whendone the spines, hair and skin adhere to the clay, leaving a very tooth-some morsel of beautifully cooked meat. In Chihli hedgehogs are looked upon as sacred animals by theChinese, and so are not molested. On the contrary, Uttle shrinesfire often built for them. In the matter of shrews these provinces are excessively poorlyrepresented, at least very few specimens have been recorded. In Chihlitwo species have been found. These are Corcidnra corece and CJiod-sigoa hyp


. Fur and feather in North China . SECTIVOROUS MAMMALS. 57 it in a coating of mud and baking it in the embera of a wood fire. Whendone the spines, hair and skin adhere to the clay, leaving a very tooth-some morsel of beautifully cooked meat. In Chihli hedgehogs are looked upon as sacred animals by theChinese, and so are not molested. On the contrary, Uttle shrinesfire often built for them. In the matter of shrews these provinces are excessively poorlyrepresented, at least very few specimens have been recorded. In Chihlitwo species have been found. These are Corcidnra corece and CJiod-sigoa hypsibia. Members of the genus Crocidura may easily by recog-nized from the fact that the tails, besides having the usual coveringof very short hairs, also have a sprinkling of long stiff ones. The othergenera of shrews have only the short hairs. The Crociduroe are furtherdistinguishable by the presence of glands, one on each side of the body,which are more or less odoriferous and probably give these animals theirname of musk The Muskshrew (Crocidura coreae). Crocidura coreae as yet has not been definitely located in anyother part of North China than Chihli, in which province a specimenwas taken at the Eastern Tombs. It was originally described fromCorea. Three young shrews secured by me in Shansi have been re-ferred to this species, but their age render the diagnosis specionens were of a distinct slate-grey, while C. coreae was describ-ed as greyish-brown. Age would of course account for this difference. Chodsigoa hypsibia was originally described as Soriculus hypsibiafrom North-western Szechuan. Whether a shrew, the remains ofwhich I found on a rock in West Shansi is referrable to this speciesor not I could not say. They were too far decomposed to preserve. In the extreme south-western portion of Kansu, bordering therichly faunistic area of Western Szechuan, Milne-Edwards little shrewCrocidura attenuata occurs, having been but recently recorded. Herealso a


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