14 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol. 45. 



in alcohol. Nothing unusual or of strilving importance was found 

 except that the two specimens of Tupaia each possessed a distinct 

 cecum, while the specimen of Tana did not. 



Cecum. — The presence or absence of a cecum in certain msectivores 

 has been made use of in the superfamUy classification of Tupaia. 

 Thus Peters ^ grouped the insectivores into those with and mthout a 

 cecum, in the former group being Galeopterus, Tupaia, and Macrosce- 

 lides. Gill ^ removed Galeopterus as a distinct suborder, and grouped 

 the Tupaiidse and Macroscelididse, as the Tupaioidea mainly on the 

 presence of a ''large" cecum. Haeckel is said to have proposed the 

 terms Menotyphla for theTupaiidse and Macroscelididse and Lipot}q3hla 

 for all the other insectivora, terms which have been retained by 

 Weber.^ Garrod's * dissected specimens of Tupaia helangeri and 

 T. splendidula both showed cecums one-half to three-fourths of an 

 inch in length; Tana tana showed no cecum. Chapman '^ states 

 that a cecum is wanting in a, specimen oi " Tupaia ferruginea" from 

 Borneo, as well as in an example of T. picta. 



All the specunens of Tupaia that I have examined possess a small 

 but distinct cecum. Unfortunately, I have not exammed the intesti- 

 nal tract of Tana tana and am so unable to confirm Garrod's 

 observations. The specimens in the United States National Museum 

 that I have examined, with length of cecum, are: 



mm. 



112660, Tupaia glis ferruginea 13 



105013, Tupaia glis ferruginea 13 



124083, Tupaia helangeri 12 



123989, Tupaia lacernata lacernata 10 



124698, Tupaia discolor 11 



121893, Tupaia chrysogaster 8. 5 



111783, Tupaia nicobarica 8 



144306, Tupaia siaca 8 



It is not to my mind a ''large cecum," and can scarcely have any 

 definite function, bemg almost as relatively small as the human 

 vermiform appendix. 



The Indian genus Anathana is said by Anderson ® to possess a 

 "long and narrow" cecum 1.17 inches in length, that is about 30 mm. 



It would not appear that the presence or absence of a cecum is a 

 good character for determining larger groups. The majority of our 

 specimens are so preserved as not to show the soft parts, and the 

 organ being vestigial appears to be absent at times, though as a rule 

 it is present in the majority of the species of Tupaia. 



1 Abh. kon. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, 1863, p. 20. 



2 Synopsis of insectivorous mammals, Bull. Geol. Geogr. Surv. Terr., No. 2, ser. 2, May 14, 1873'. 



3 Die Saugetiere, 1904, p. 377. 



* Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1879, pp. 301-305. 



6 Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., vol. 56, 1904, p. 148. 



• Zool. Res. West. Yunnan, 1879, p. 126. 



