Miscellaneous. 347 



L., of Europe generally, — T. ceeca, Savi, of Italy and Greece, — T. 

 moogura, Temminck, of Japan, — and T. mieroura, Hodgson, of Nepal, 

 Sikim, Butan, and the mountains of Asam : but the Society's Museum 

 has long possessed specimens of another from Cherra Punji (N. of 

 Sylhet), which I have recognised as distinct for some years, but now 

 only proceed to describe. 



In its externa] characters, the Cherra Punji Mole diiFers little from 

 T. mieroura, except that the tail is considerably more developed, 

 though much less so than in T. europcea ; and the latter is clad and 

 tufted with white hairs, whence I propose for the species the name of 

 T. leucura. This animal, also, would seem hardly to attain the size 

 of T. mieroura. An adult female in spirit measures 4^ inches long, 

 with tail f inch additional : the latter is of a club shape, much con- 

 stricted for the basal half. The general colour of the fur, too, is less 

 fulvescent than is usual with T. mieroura. In both of these Asiatic 

 species, as in T. cceea, there is no perforation of the integument over 

 the eye, as in T. europcea ; the skin being there merely attenuated and 

 imperfectly transparent. 



But the characteristic distinction of T. leucura consists in having 

 only two small praemolars in the upper jaw anterior to the great last 

 praemolar {carnassier, or ' scissor-tooth ') ; both T. europcea and T. 

 mieroura having three, — these being comparatively larger and less 

 separated in the latter, and the carnassier is also much larger in T. 

 mieroura than in T. europcea. The posterior spur of the canine (? or 

 pseudo-canine*) is remarkably developed in T. leucura, in place of 

 the absent small prsemolar. In the dentition of the lower jaw, there 

 are also characteristic differences distinguishing these three species. 

 In the Moles, as in most other Inseetivora, and also in the Lemuridce 

 (the very peculiar genus Cheiromys, which has rodential tusks, 

 excepted), the lower canine is minute and takes the form of an 

 incisor, for which it has been very commonly mistaken f; and the 

 first praemolar is developed to assume the form of a canine, but locks 

 posteriorly to the upper canine (or pseudo-canine), and like it has a 

 double fang. There is no instance of a genuine lower canine locking 

 behind the upper one, unless the gnawing tusks of the Rodentia and 

 of the Lemuridous Cheiromys be regarded as the homologues of 

 canines, which seems to be indicated more by the co-presence of un- 

 doubted upper incisors in the Leporidce, than the reverse is by the 

 difficulty of always tracing the origin of upper rodential tusks 



* In all the Inseetivora, Cuv., which apparently possess upper canines, 

 these teeth have rather the structure of modified false molars, and, I beheve, 

 have always double fangs, as exemplified by Talpa, Centetes, and Gymnura. 



t No placental mammal has more than three pairs of true incisors, or 

 than three pairs of true molars (distinguished by their not being preceded 

 by deciduary teeth in the young animal, as is the case with all other teeth). 

 Although certain instances occur, as especially in tlie hoofed ruminants, 

 where the lower canine is hardly (if at all) to be distinguished from the 

 incisors, yet this fourth supposed pair of incisors never co-exists with an 

 undoubted canine {vide the Camels, Horses, Ta])irs, &c.), that is among the 

 placental mammalia, inasmuch as they are the veritable homologues of those 

 teeth. 



