TALPID^-TALPA 



The skull is elongated and possesses auditory bullae and 

 slender zygomatic arches but no post-orbital processes. 



There are forty-four teeth, an exceptional number for a 

 recent species, but regarded as typical for the primitive 

 placental mammalia. They are arranged as follows : — 



.3- ^ I - I 



I ^ — -, c , 



3-3 I-I 



pm - — -, m ^ — ?. 

 4-4 Z-Z 



wTO^^ii^ 



Fig. I. — Side View (diagrammatic and magni- 

 fied 2f times) OF Teeth of Talpa europcea. 



The chisel-shaped incisors are disposed in a semicircle ; 

 the median upper pair are slightly larger than their 



fellows, the lower are not ex- 

 tended forwards horizontally 

 as in the shrews. The long 

 and conical upper canine is 

 double-rooted. Then follow 

 three small, subequal, double- 

 rooted premolars; the fourth 

 is larger and more in series 

 with the three molars, of 

 which the second is largest 

 and has seven cusps, two 

 internal and five arranged 

 as an external W (compare 

 Plate II., Fig. ia, Vol. I., p. 

 124). In the lower jaw the canine is indistinguishable from the 

 incisors, and the anterior lower premolar is enlarged to take 

 its place. The premolars are small, but increase in size from 

 the front backwards. The last molar, the smallest of its 

 series, is comparatively larger than that of the upper javi^. 



True moles are almost confined to the temperate regions of 

 Europe and Asia, from Great Britain through the Himalaya 

 and Altai ranges to the mountainous parts of Assam and 

 Burma, where they reach at least 10,000 feet (Blanford). 

 The best known species after T. eitropcra, is Savi s T. ccEca of 

 south Europe except Spain, where is found T. occidentalis 

 (Cabrera), a smaller animal with functionless eyes and 

 shorter snout ; Thomas's T. romana, a large-toothed form, 

 was described from the neighbourhood of Rome, Italy (Ann. 

 and Mag. Nat. Hist., December 1902, 516-517). Others, such 



