8 SOLENODON PARADOXUS. 



and under every movable article in the cage. They have a prunounced odur, 

 not disagreeable, and reminding one slightly of that of a goat or a porcupine, 

 j^et characteristically different. 



Verrill states that a female in his possession gave birth to three young, 

 which, however, she promptly devoured. One of the females in the lot belong- 

 ing to the Museum likewise brought forth her young in captivity, but in this 

 case h)ut a single one was found. If others were born, they too must have 

 been devoured. This young one when jirobably a day or so old had the eyes 

 and ears still closed. The hair was beginning to appear, although not sufficiently 

 to clothe the body. It was a female (Plate l, fig. 1) and had the single pair 

 of mammae well developed. It lived but three days, at the end of which time 

 the first upper and the two first lower incisors were erupted, but the eyes and 

 the ears were as yet unopened. 



EXTERNAL APPEARANCE. 



In general form Solenodon is shrew-like, with a long tapering snout, elongate 

 head and a stout tail. The feet and limbs are not notably modified, though 

 the fore claws are greatly developed. The great development of the snout 

 beyond the nasal bones is a striking peculiarity, shared, however, to some 

 extent by the African genera Macroscelides and Rhjiichocyon. This proboscis 

 in Solenodon paradoxus is cartilaginous, and consists of a long tube, quadrangular 

 in section (Plate 5, fig. 2) and deeper than wide. The nasal septum divides the 

 cavity of the proboscis and is continued into the nasal chamber; a projecting 

 ridge on each side of the septum, partly divides tlie lumen of the proboscis into a 

 dorsal and a ventral tube. At its proximal end the proboscis is vontrally sup- 

 ported by a small round bone, the os proboscidis, and laterally it is held in place 

 by a short triangular cartilage on each side from the upper free edges of the 

 premaxillaries. These cartilages are loosely bound to th(> sides of the jiroboscis 

 by connective tissue. The ti]) of the snout has a naked i-liinariiun about a centi- 

 meter in length ventrally whose posterior border is ill defined dorsally just pos- 

 tei'ior to the nostrils, but below it is sharply marked off from the surrounding 

 haired surfaces by a slight groove. A median groo\'e runs from the upper 

 incisors to the tijj of the snout which here is slightly cmarginate. The nostrils 

 open laterally and are somewhat crescentiform. The sides of the snout are 

 supplied with about a dozen large vibrissae, the longest of which measure about 

 65 mm. There are in addition shorter hairs from swollen bases, that are coarser 



