EXTERNAL APPEARANCE. 9 



than those surrounding and are doubtless tactile. A single vibrissa 25 mm. 

 long is present on the midline of the chin below the angle of the mouth. Two 

 or three long coarse hairs are also found midway between the eye and the ear. 



The ear is large, and nearly rountl in general outline, though the anterior 

 margin is straight. A large posterior basal lobe is marked off by a conspicuous 

 notch halfway on the posterior border. A smaller lobe is similarly indicated 

 at tlie base of this larger lobe. The whole appears to be comparal)le with the 

 antitragus of other mammals. On its internal surface is a rounded ridge. 

 This and the more ectal portion of the antitragus are thinly covered by hair. 

 The tragus, at the base of the antero-internal bortler of the ear, is a barely 

 indicated marginal prominence. A prominent metatragus is well developed, 

 just below ami anterior to the center of the ear. It consists of a large roundetl 

 lobe anteriorly with a short small ridge-like projection just posterior and paral- 

 lel to it. These two prominences are placed slightly obUquely to the vertical 

 axis, inclined forward. From the notch separating postero-dorsally the anti- 

 tragal lobe, a prominent ridge is developed, with a somewhat crescentiform 

 outline, the concavity ventral, projecting inward nearly a third the diameter of 

 the ear. There is on each ear, directly above this ridge and about 3 mm. from 

 the posterior rim of the conch, a low round papilla. The border of the ear is 

 slightly emarginate above this papilla, a result possibly of injury, since the two 

 notches are not of exactly the same appearance in the two ears. The distal 

 half of both inner and outer surfaces of the conch is sprinkled with minute 

 appressed hairs. The ear of S. cubanus is slightly larger. 



The body is round and stout, the limbs heavy and muscular. The latter 

 present no remarkable modifications, but the claws of tlie anterior digits are 

 greatly developed, apparently for scratching the surface rather than for liurrow- 

 ing in the earth. In the Cuban Solenodon they are absolutely longer and more 

 slender, although the animal itself is smaller. The three middle digits of fore 

 and hind feet are subeciual. The innermost digit is in each case the shortest. 

 The hind foot is of a very generalized type, and with long metatarsal bones 

 suited to the semi-plantigrade method of walking. 



The tail is long and stout in S. paradoxus, though rather more slender, 

 relatively, than in S. cvharvus. In both it is covered at the base by dense hairs, 

 fine and very short, wliich extend forward to the posterior part of the rumj), 

 where the long hairs abruptly stop. The tail is covered with very small scales, 

 between which are scattered minute hairs. Near the base of the tail there are 

 about 36 scales in a single transverse row. 



