MAY, 1921. AMERICAN MARSUPIAL, C^ENOLESTES OSGOOD. 19 



placing the traps in that locality, but although I continued to trap there 

 for a week longer, having as many as 40 or 50 traps in that place, I 

 secured no more specimens there, nor in any other similar localities 

 where trapping was done. The stream alluded to runs over a bed 

 strewn with volcanic rocks and boulders and is in an open cultivated 

 valley-head, draining the south slopes of Mount Pichincha, about 8 

 miles south of Quito and at an elevation of about 10,500 feet, the valley 

 at this point being about half a mile wide and extending to even greater 

 widths as far as one can see, in a southerly direction." (Stone, 1914, p. 18.) 

 The type of C&nolestes (or Orolestes) inca was collected by an ex- 

 perienced naturalist, Mr. Edmund Heller, whose notes, when published, 

 will doubtless furnish substantial additions to what is now known of the 

 animal. 1 



EXTERNAL CHARACTERS. 



General form. Although frequently referred to as "ratlike," the 

 general form in Canolestes might with equal propriety be called soricine. 

 Insectivorous forms such as Nesogale approach it closely and, as else- 

 where shown (PI. XIX), have practically identical major proportions. 

 Among marsupials, the species most closely resembling it are perhaps 

 to be found in the genus Phascologale. Many species of Marmosa ap- 

 proximate it in size of body, but distinctions in the feet, ears, and tail 

 are so obvious that the parallel is at once seen to be only of the most 

 general nature. The legs are of moderate length, the hind pair 20 to 

 25 per cent longer than the front. 



Head. The head is elongate conical and somewhat shrewlike in 

 general appearance. The eyes are very small, the distance between the 

 anterior and posterior canthi measuring only 2.2 mm. in a female speci- 

 men in alcohol. The rounded ears project well above the pelage but are 

 relatively small as compared to those of the didelphids. The thickness 

 of the cartilaginous conch also is greater and it is set with fine short 

 hairs within and without. The tragus is but little developed and the 

 considerably larger antitragus is opposed mainly by the cms of the 

 helix which forms a thin flap directed inward. Two parallel antihelical 

 folds (metatragus) are prominent and separated from each other by a 

 deep fossa (PI. II, fig. i). A similar condition is found in Perameles 

 (cf. Thomas, 1888, PI. XXI, figs. 5, 7). The nostrils are lateral and 

 bounded by a rhinarium which is extended dorsally to form a small v- 

 shaped plate. A shallow furrow traverses it anteriorly and dorsally. 



1 1 am informed by Mr. Heller that these and other notes on Peruvian mammals 

 have been prepared for publication by the National Geographic Society, Washington, 

 B.C. 



