248 Bulletin American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXVII, 



Venous foramina. The skull of even the adult Solenoclon paradoxiis is 

 remarkable for the great number of small venous foramina which pierce it 

 in many regions and which make the task of identifying the normal Insecti- 

 vore foramina very difficult. Immediately above the small ethmoid foramen 

 (Fig. 18, A^, f. eth.) is a foramen (double in the young skull) which may be 

 termed the supra-ethmoicl and which leads dorsad, between the inner and 

 outer tables of the frontal. This foramen was not recognized in Centetes 

 or Erinaceus. Back of it and just in front of the anterodorsal process of the 

 alisphenoid, is a pit into which open two canals: the lower one, which may 

 be designated as the supra-optic (/. sup. op.) runs downward and backward 

 and joins the suboptic described below; the dorsal foramen {"sin. can.") 

 is the anterior opening of what Parker calls the "sinus canal" of Microgale, 

 this runs backward along the side of the skull, and sends otf branches to the 

 j)Ost-parietal and post-glenoid foramina and to the transverse occipital sinus. 

 It is present in Microgale and Erinaceus. The suboptic foramen is located 

 just below the optic foramen; its canal runs downward and backward to the 

 transverse sinus in the presphenoid. It has a similar position and course in 

 Erinaceus (Mivart, 1867, p. 283), but appears to be absent in Centetes 

 (Mivart, 1868, p, 299). 



The post-parietal (/. p. pa.), post- squamosal foramina (Fig. 18, A'^) as well 

 as the post-glenoid, the sub-sqiiamosal (/. sb. sq.) and post-mastoicl all form 

 ])art of the same system, which is more or less completely developed in ]Mar- 

 supials (cf. p. 224), and to a varying degree in the lo\\'er Placentals. 

 Postero- externally to the condylar foramen is another member of the 

 series, the venous condylar foramen, which appears to be homologous with 

 that in Marsupials. As in Thylacynus this venous foramen in Solenodon 

 leads into a canal which issues in the occipital aspect immediately above 

 the condyle. In Solenodon another branch runs upward and issues on the 

 inside of the skull above and behind the ])etrosal. 



The cervical vertebrce agree in general characters with those of Erinaceus 

 and Centetes. As in many primitive forms, the centra are broad and de- 

 pressed. The transverse processes of C. 1-6 are pierced by the vertebral 

 artery but not that of C. 7 (a ty])ical Placental character). The para- 

 pophysis of C. 6 is larger than that of the others, as in so many other mam- 

 mals. There are twenty dorso-lumbar vertebrce (16 + 4) and two true sacrals, 

 followed by two caudo-sacrals. In the adult these four vertebree, with their 

 neural spines, coalesce. Dobson gives the vertebral fornuda for Solenodon 

 cubanus as C. 7, D. 15, L. 4, S. 5, "coccygeal'' 2, caudals 21. The more 

 proximal caudal rertcbrw are very large and the tail itself, as in Orycteropus 

 and many other archaic mammals, is very stout near the root. The caudal 

 chevrons are paired. Below and between the six caudals, the sacrals and 



