Lect. VII.] MASCAKEXE TYPES. 1G7 



hope to oljtaiu the embryos or at least the young, as it 

 is one of the most instructive of these mixed or oeueral- 

 ised forms. Of the Centetida) or Tenrec family the 

 largest is the Tenrec, proper ; it is larger than the Hedge- 

 hog, and has scarcely any tail ; but, like the aquatic Whale, 

 its head is about one-third the length of its body. It is 

 armed with spines, and during the wet and cold months 

 it sleeps, as the Hedgehog does here ; those months, 

 corresponding in time to our summer, as Mr Dallas 

 tells us,^ are the wintry months of Madagascar. Besides 

 this kind, of which I have been able to work out 

 several stages, I have studied the skull in its sul)- 

 adult stage in three of the lesser kinds of Centetida), 

 namely, Ericulus, Hemicentetes, and Microgcde ; the 

 latter is as small as our common Shrew. Every one is 

 aware that the straits of Mozambique separate Faunae 

 and Florae that seem to bear very little relation to each 

 other ; the South Eastern African types, and the 

 Mascarene types, whether of plants or animals, are ver}^ 

 diverse from each other. 



These Mascarene Insectivora are quite unlike the 

 forms found at or near Zanziljar, and in the South 

 African region generally ; there the Elephant-Shrews, 

 rightly named, and the Rhynchocyon, their relation, are 

 extremely unlike the Tenrecs, and are indeed a sort of 

 half Opossum, with a proboscis. The Tenrecs agree with 

 the Hedgehogs in having a pneumatic skull-base, and with 



^ CasscWs Natural History, Xo. 12, p. 360. 



