124 THE WANDERINGS OF ANIMALS [CH. 



only one genus, EreMzwi, has reached North 

 America, now up to Alaska and Labrador. Lastly, 

 the Octodont family : Aulacodus in North Africa 

 and Abyssinia; Capromys in the Bahamas and 

 others in South America, where they existed in the 

 Miocene. There can be no doubt that the Hystricho- 

 morphs are of Old World origin. Long before the 

 mid-Miocene, divers members must have passed from 

 Africa directly into tropical America, which by the 

 Lfpper Miocene had already become a new centre 

 of dispersal. It is certain that this continent did not 

 receive its supply from the north. 



Insectivores. 



The order, with 200 recent species, is cosmopolitan 

 with the exception of the South American continent 

 and Australasia. There are some in Cuba and Hayti, 

 many in Madagascar, but none on other outlying or 

 oceanic islands. Occurring already in the Eocene of 

 North America and Europe, they died out in the 

 former continent which has received its present sup- 

 ply of ' star-nosed' and 'web-footed' moles and shrews 

 from Eurasia in late Tertiary times. 



Centetidae and allies. Beginning in Lower Oligo- 

 cene of North America with forms allied to Solenodon 

 of Cuba and Hayti, a most primitive, generalised 

 Placental. These are related to the Ethiopian 



