618 INSECTIVORA 



colour and length of the fur. Their general appearance is very 

 Squirrel-like. Their food consists of insects and fruit, which they 

 usually seek in the trees, but also occasionally on the ground. 

 When feeding they often sit on their haunches, holding the food, 

 after the manner of Squirrels, between their fore-paws. 



Ptilocercus. 1 — Represented only by the Pentailed Tree -Shrew 

 (P. loivi, Fig. 283) of Borneo, in which the tail is of extraordinary 

 length, with the proximal two-thirds naked, and the remaining third 

 furnished with a bilateral fringe of long hairs, from which the genus 

 takes its name. 



Extinct Genera. — An Insectivore from the Middle Miocene of 

 France, described as Lantanotherium, is said to be nearly allied to 

 Tupaia. The genus Parasorex, from strata of similar age, has the 

 dental formula i f , c ^, p -£, m f , and is regarded as connecting the 

 present with the following family. 



Family Macroscelidid^e. 



Skull with comparatively large brain -case, strong zygomatic 

 arch, a tympanic bulla, orbit surrounded by bone, imperforate 

 jugal, and usually no postorbital process. Molars broad, with 

 four cusps arranged in a W. Pubic symphysis long ; proximal end 

 of tibia and fibula united ; radius and ulna united or separate ; 

 metatarsus much longer than tarsus. A large caecum. Habits 

 terrestrial, saltatorial, and nocturnal. The family is confined to 

 Africa. 



Macroscelides. 2 — Dentition : i § , c ^ p f, m ~ ; total 40 or 42. 

 Distal extremity of radius and ulna united. Five digits in manus, 

 and five or four in pes. This genus, which is taken to include 

 Petrodromus, comprises ten species widely distributed throughout the 

 African continent. All are closely related, resembling one another 

 in general form, and even in the colour of the fur. They fall into 

 two groups, distinguished by the presence or absence of a small 

 third lower molar. 3 M. tetradactylus (Fig. 284), the type of the 

 genus Petrodromus, differs from all the other species in the absence 

 of the hallux, and of the third lower molar. These animals are 

 commonly known as Jumping Shrews, and, like the following- 

 genus, have the muzzle much produced. 



Ehynchocyoii} — Dentition : j |, c i p -f-, m # ; total 36. Upper 

 incisor frequently shed in the adult. Radius and ulna distinct ; 



1 Gray, Proc. Zool. S'oc. 1848, p. 23. 2 Andrew Smith, S. African Quart. 



Jvuru. vol. ii. No. 1, p. 64 (1833). 



3 The above correct formula of the dentition of this family has been recently 

 worked out by 0. Thomas, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1890, pp. 445, 446. 



4 Peters, Bericht I: jnruss. AJc. JViss. 1847, p. 36. 





