An old illustration of a mole or shrew or something. It’s posed on a lump of earth surrounded by water and there’s no indication of scale so you can’t tell if it’s tiny and standing on a clump of moss or hundreds of metres tall and crushing a forest. It has webbed feet and a snake-like tail that doesn’t seem to attach to its body properly and a bizarre elephant-like trunk, and despite being an animal its face bears an expression of terrified desperation as if its family is going to be murdered if it doesn’t remain perfectly still for the artist. The picture is titled Sorex moſchatus Pall. which is certainly the kind of name I’d give to something this bizarre looking.
It’s probably meant to be one of these…
(Turns out it’s a Russian Desman (Desmana moschata) – which is even written on the image in French! – but I’m leaving the video)
