152 INSECTIVORA. 



inside. They frequent stony mountains ; and under stones, in deep and 

 almost inaccessible recesses, in clefts of the rock, and holes of the earth, 

 they find refuge from danger. They love the sunlight, and are most 

 active during the scorching hours of noon ; their food consists mainly 

 of insects, which their long legs enable them to catch or their long snout 

 to find in rifts and clefts. They are very timid, and the slightest motion 

 sends them into their hiding-places ; after some time, one after another 

 sallies out, hops about, looking and listenmg on every side ; then they 

 begin to snuffle at the stones or catch, at a spring, some passing insect. 

 Their habitations are made below the surface of the ground, and consist 

 of a deep and tortuous burrow, the entrance to which is a perpen- 

 dicularly sunk shaft of some little depth. 



The rapidity of their movements and the speed with which the}' take 

 flight render it a difficult task to capture them ; but when captured they 

 endure confinement pretty well, are gentle and graceful and soon gain 

 the sympathy of man. 



Seven of the species are found in Southern Africa ; one, the Trunked 

 Rat, Macroscelides Rozetti, has been found in Algeria. It is said that some 

 ingenious soldiers of the French army, quartered there, have at times 

 been induced to meet the demand for specimens by a manufactured 

 supply. An erudite naturalist was delighted at purchasing from a 

 Zouave a magnificent specimen of the Trunked Rat, till closer examina- 

 tion showed him that it was a common rat with an inch of its own tail 

 grafted by a little incision on the end of its nose. 



II.— GENUS RHYNCHOCYON. 



The Rhynchocyons are also leaping animals, consequently have the 

 hind quarters more elevated than the fore ones, but their bodies are 

 more slim, and thev are altogether larger than the Macroscelides. 

 Besides this, they are " tetradactylous " — that is, their limbs are ter- 

 minated by only four toes. 



The 07ily species known, the Rhyjichocyon cirnei, was discovered in 

 Mozambique by the traveler and naturalist Peters. Its muzzle is pro- 

 longed into a very conspicuous proboscis ; the eyes are large, the ears 

 moderate, while the tail is considerably developed. The outer toe is 

 widely separated from the others in the fore-feet. It possesses thirty-six 

 teeth. 



