SPECIES OF MAMMALS OF THE PACIFIC AREA 37 



inches ; tail, six to seven inches. A strong musky odor is given 

 off. The diet is more generalized than that of most kangaroos ; 

 besides roots and fruits, insects and worms are eaten. It is 

 restricted to Queensland. 



Insectivores. Order Insectivora 

 In the islands with which we are concerned, the insect-eaters 

 are represented by hedgehogs, gymnures (rat-like insectivores), 

 shrews, moles, and tree shrews. Most of these feed on insects 

 and have sharp-cusped cheek-teeth; the cusps looked at from 

 above are arranged in the shape of the letter W. The incisor 

 teeth are pincer-like in most cases. The muzzles are long and 

 pointed, projecting well beyond the mouth opening. Insec- 

 tivores usually have five toes on both fore and hind feet, and 

 they walk on the whole sole and palm rather than on the toes 

 as dogs and cats do. The first or inner pair of incisors is 

 usually the largest and the canine is either like the incisors or 

 like the first cheek-teeth. 



Although the small shrews are often mistaken for mice, the 

 gymnures for rats, and the tree shrews for squirrels, the in- 

 cisor teeth of these insectivores are not chisel-like, there is no 

 large gap between the incisors and the cheek-teeth, nor are the 

 cheek-teeth modified for grinding. These differences, together 

 with the characters given above, should be sufficient to distin- 

 guish the insectivores from any of the rodents. 



This order is a very ancient group and contains the most 

 primitive of the placental mammals. It is thought that most 

 of the higher orders have been derived from early insectivores. 

 The flying lemurs or colugos of the Order Dermoptera (p. 44) 

 are probably closely related, and the bats may have developed 

 from the same stock as these gliders. The tree shrews are 

 thought by many to be ancestral to the primates (monkeys, 

 etc.), and some authors place them in that order. They are 

 included here because, although no doubt related to the pri- 

 mates, they have more in common with the insectivores. 



