346 GEOGRAPHICAL AND GEOLOGICAL DISTRIBUTION. 



a single species, the very interesting Bornean pentail (P. Lowii), 

 remarkable for its long quill-shaped tail. — The elephant- shrews 

 (Macroscelidos), small leaping animals furnished with a trunk-like 

 snout, are confined principally to South Africa; a single species of 

 Macroscelidcs, to which genus the greater number of species belong, 

 is found north of the Atlas Mountains. Several fossil forms, appar- 

 ently referable to genera belonging to this family (Oxygomi)hus, 

 Parasorex, Echinogale), have been described from the Miocene de- 

 posits of France and Germany. Likewise restricted to the African 

 continent are the potamogales and golden-moles (Chrysochloridae) 

 —the former, represented by a single species (Potamogale velox), 

 inhabiting the territory about the Gaboon River, and the latter the 

 region south of the Equator, but more particularly the Cape of 

 Good Hope districts. Neither family is known by fossil repre- 

 sentatives. The CentetidiE occupy tw^o widely separated regions 

 of the earth's surface, namely, Madagascar, with the adjoining isl- 

 ands (possibly introduced into Mauritius and Reunion) and the two 

 larger islands of the Antilles, Cuba and Hayti. Most of the forms, 

 with the genus Centetes itself, the Madagascar hedge-hog, occupy 

 the former region ; the American species (two) belong to the genus 

 Solenodon, which in certain anatomical points differs so essentially 

 from its nearest allies as to constitute in the opinions of some sys- 

 tematists ^-* the type of a distinct family, Solenodontidse. 



Of tlie three remaining families of insectivores, the shrews 

 (Soricida-), moles (Talpida;), and hedg(?-hogs (Erinaceida;), the 

 first, which, as has already been stated, comprise about one-half 

 of all the species of the order, have the broadest distribution, 

 embracing, in fact, the entire tract covered by the Insectivora gen- 

 erally. By some naturalists but a single genus (Sorex), apart from 

 the very remarkable web-footed Nectogale from Thibet, is recog- 

 nised, which is differentiated into a number of more or less well- 

 marked sub-genera, founded upon the number and colour of the 

 teeth, and the bristles on the tail— Crocidura (Old World), Sorex 

 (the entire range), Blarina (Canada to Costa Rica), Neosorex, and 

 Crossopus, the last two amphibious forms of the New and the Old 

 World respectively. Several species referable to the genus Sorex 

 (and Crocidura) have been descril>ed from the Miocene formations 

 of France, and similar remains occur in the Quaternary cavern de- 

 posits and breccias of both Europe and Asia. One or two extinct 



