1910.] The Mcnotijphla. 269 



is probable they should be set apart as an entirely distinct order, Menotyphla 

 Haeckel, as indicated in 1884 by Leche (1884-1885). 



No monograph of the same sco])e as those of Dobson and Leche on the 

 lipotyphloiis Insectivores has been devoted to the Menotyjihla. Preserved 

 specimens and skeletons are rare, at least in American museums, and no 

 figures of the skull and skeleton appear in the leading modern text-books 

 on mammak. Excellent figures of the skeletons and skulls of different 

 members of the grouj) are, however, given in de Blainville's * Osteographie,' 

 and by Peters (1852) and INIivart (1868). 



Parker (1885-86, p. 247), Elliot Smith (1902) and Broom (1902) have- 

 recognized Marsupial affinities in the Macroscelididse but writers in general 

 seem to ignore the importance of the INIenotyphla as a grou]) in the study 

 of the genetic relations of the mammalian orders. No other living Placental 

 suborder shows resemblances and possibly affinities to so many widely dif- 

 ferent orders as do the Tupaiidse. In the skull and dentition, as will be 

 shown, tlie diiferent forms present certain resemblances to the Le})tictidfe, 

 to Galeopithecus, to the Chiroptera and to the Lemurs; while in the brain 

 of Macroscelides and in the tympanic region of Tupaia and Ptilocercus we 

 find a remarkable combination of Marsupial and Placental features {ride 

 infra) . 



The following review of the genetically more significant characters of 

 the Menotyphla is based partly on the skeletal material in the National 

 Museum (which the writer has had the privilege of examining through the 

 courtesy of Drs. True and Lyon), partly on the figures of the skeleton given 

 by de Plain ville and Peters (1852), and partly on the writings of Mivart 

 (1868), Weber (1904), van Kampen (1905) and others. 



THE TUPAIIDM. 



Habits. The very squirrel-like appearance and habits of the Oriental 

 Tree Shrew (Tupaia) are described by Gill (1885, p. 14). The Tupaias con^ 

 trast sharply with the lipotyphlous Insectivores in their thoroughly arboreal 

 and diurnal habits, lively disposition and great agility, as well as in their 

 mixed diet of fruit and insects. They occasionally sit up on their haunches 

 and hold their food between the fore legs. They sleep in rudely constructed 

 lairs in the highest branches of the trees. In adaptation to arboreal habits 

 the manus and pes are provided with strong claws, slightly divergent pollex 

 and hallux and well developed palmar and plantar pads (Fig. 20). 



Ptilocercus lowii Gray (1848, pi. ii), the Pen-tailed Tree Shrew of Sarawak 

 and Borneo, is likewise arboreal and is very phalanger-like, especially in its 

 tail, which as in Dista;churus, ends in a vane of stiff hairs on either side. 



