On the Shrews from the Malayan Archipelago

It is a great exception if collections made by naturalists having collected in the islands of the Malayan Archipelago contain Shrews. For that reason specimens of this group of Insectivora are very rare in the Musea of Natural History and a very small number of species have been described. In this paper I will try to give a review of the known species and their distribution over the islands of the named Archipelago. In the 12th edition of his Systema Naturae, Linnaeus described the first a Malayan species after a specimen from Java: he named it Sorex murinus (Sorex marinus apud Gmelin). Notwithstanding Pallas was convinced of the fact that he described Linnaeus’ species, he however called it Sorex myosurus. S. Müller and Macklot, the zealous and well known members of the scientific staff of the Dutch Commission for natural history investigations in our Archipelago , reported that Sorex myosurus P. (S. murinus L.) was to be found in Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Celebes and Amboina, but that there is living in Timor another species, which they described under the name of Sorex tenuis in the work, entitled »Verkandelingen over de Natuurlijke Geschiedenis, etc. 1839—1841”.