MUSK RAT, or DEsmAN (mygale or galemys), a genus of insectivorous qeadrupe is of the shrew (q.v.) family (sarecida), differing from the true s'arews (sorer) in having two very small teeth between the two large incisors of the lower jaw, and the upper incisors flattened and triangular. Behind these incisors are six or seven small teeth (lateral incisors or false canine teeth) and four jagged molars. The muzzle is elongated into a small flexible proboscis, which is constantly in motion. The eyes are very small; there are no external ears; the fur is long, straight, and divergent; the mil long, scaly, and flattened at the sides. All the feet have five toes, fully webbed; and the animals are entirely aquatic, inhabiting lakes and rivers, and making holes in the banks with the entrance from beneath the surface of the water. Only two species are known, one (31. or G. oevenalca) about 8 in. long, with tail as long as the body, a native of the streams of the Pyrenees; another larger species (.1/. or G. mosehata), very plentiful in the Volga
and other rivers anti lakes of the s. of Russia, nearly equal in siz..! to the common hedge hog, with tail about three-fourths of the length of the body. The Russian desulan is blackish above, whitish beneath; it has long silky hair, with a softer felt beneath, and its fur is held in some esteem. Desman skins, however, are chiefly valued on account of the musky odor which they long exhale, and which is derived from a fatty secretion produced by small follicles under the tail of the animal. The desman feeds on leeches, aquatic larvm, etc., searching for them in the mud by means of its flexible proboscis. It seldom, if ever, voluntarily leaves the water, except in the interior of its burrows, which are sometimes 20 ft. long.