DISTRIBUTION OF INSECTIVORES, BATS, AND RODENTS 259 



Others of the eleven genera of this family, however, are 

 based on one or two species and have a much more 

 limited distribution, such as the Water-shrew (Crossopus) 

 of Europe and Northern Asia, and Nectogale, the Web- 

 footed Shrew of Tibet. 



After the Shrews follow the Moles (Talpidie) of which 

 about eleven genera are known containing altogether about 

 twenty-three species. The Moles are specially character- 

 istic of the Palaaarctic "and Nearctic Regions, to which 

 nearly all the genera and species are confined, but one 

 or two species of true Moles (Talpa) have invaded the 

 confines of the Oriental Region. 



The seventh family of Insectivores (Potamogalidte) 

 contains only two isolated forms — Potamogale from West 

 Africa and Geogale from Madagascar. This group must 

 therefore be attributed to the Ethiopian Region. 



Allied to the last-named family, but still more closely 

 to the Tenrecs which follow them, are the two species of 

 the remarkable genus Solenodon, to find which we must 

 go, strangely enough, as far as the West Indian Islands. 

 Here linger the last representatives of this singular 

 group of Insectivores, one species, Solenodon paradoxus, 

 being restricted to Hayti and the other, S. cubanus, to 

 Cuba. 



The Tenrecs (Centetidte), which form the ninth family 

 of Insectivorous Mammals, number as many as twenty- 

 one species which belong to seven genera, of which the 

 distribution may be very shortly described, as they all 

 belong to the island of Madagascar, and constitute one 

 of the most curious of the primitive forms of animal life 

 that render the Malagasy Sub-region so remarkable. 



Finally, closing the Order of Insectivores, we find the 



