On a new very small Shrew from Mayotte, Crocidura (Pachyura) coquerelii, Pollen and van Dam, Ms

The Insectivora from Madagascar generally belong to forms which are quite distinct from each other, such as the genera Centetes, Oryzoryctes, Geogale, etc., and which have now become the types of separate families and subfamilies. Up to 1848 the large group of Shrews, Soricidae, was looked upon as not inhabiting either Madagascar or the little adjoining islands. At that time Mr. Ch. Coquerel, Surgeon in the French Navy, published a good description and figures of Sorex madagascariensis ¹), a very small Shrew, which he had discovered at Nossi-Bé, on the N. W. Coast of Madagascar. Later in 1855 Dr. Leop. Fitzinger briefly described as Pachyura auriculata ²), a much larger Shrew brought home by Mad. Ida Pfeiffer from her travels in Madagascar. But this species does not differ in any essential character from P. serpentaria Is. Geoffr., a Shrew not uncommon in India and Ceylon, which also inhabits Mauritius (Ile de France) where it was imported by vessels. It has most probably been brought to Madagascar in the same way. As to Sorex madagascariensis Coquerel, a species very distinct from all others, already known, the case is quite different. This species together with Sorex etruscus Savi, from South-Europe and North- Africa, with S. gracilis de Blainv., from South-Africa, and with the species about to be described, constitutes a small group of diminutive forms in the subgenus Pachyura. This group is apparently limited to the Occidental part of the Ethiopian region and includes the smallest Mammals hitherto known.