416 INSECTIVORES. 



should be guided by the more fixed character, and call the tooth in 

 question a canine. The fourth tooth below, although so small, is 

 the only one which has the true relative position of a canine, in 

 advance of the one above, when the mouth is shut ; and we shall 

 find in the genus Lemur a similar conformity of size and shape 

 between the lower canine and incisors as exists in the common 

 Mole.(l) There is no difficulty about the other teeth, the canines 

 being determined ; thus, according to my view, the dental formula 

 of the genus Talpa is: in. jE^, c. H, pm. JeJ, m, 3E5,=44 ; the teeth 

 are here equal in number, and the same in kind in both jaws ; the 

 true molars are reduced to the normal quantity in the Placental 

 series, and the entire dentition is the least anomalous of any which 

 is manifested in the family TalpidcB. 



162. Soricida. — The transition from the Moles to the Shrews seems 

 to be made by the Water-moles, (Mygale), and the Solenodon. The 

 latter Insectivore combines the form of a gigantic Shrew with a 

 dentition resembling that of the Chrysochlore.(2) Each inter- 

 maxillary bone contains three incisors, the first large, canine-shaped, 

 grooved anteriorly with the point inclined backwards ; the other 

 two incisors small with simple conical crowns ; these are succeeded 

 by seven teeth, the two anterior having three-sided conical crowns, 

 the other five bearing in addition an external tuberculate basal 

 ridge. In the lower jaw, the anterior incisor is very small, and the 

 second large and laniariform, as in the Scalops and Chrysochlore ; but 

 it is remarkable for a deep longitudinal excavation upon its inner 

 side, (3) (PL 111, b and c,) apparently produced by the friction of 

 the large upper incisors which are received into the interspace of 

 the lower pair ; the third lower incisor is small and simple ; of 

 the seven succeeding teeth the four last have multicuspid crowns 

 like true molars. 



The Pyrenean Water-mole, {Mygale pyrenaica), has eleven teeth 

 on each side of both jaws ; the first incisor above is relatively larger 

 than in Scalops, trihedral and sharp-pointed ; the second and third 



(1) In the Talpa mooguru Temm., the inferior canine is absent, as in the genus Scalops ; 

 in the Condylure, or Uayed-mole, it is present with the form and proportions of a canine. 



(2) See Brandt, Acta Petropol ; ii, 1835. 



(31 ITie name of the genus, ((roX»/»', a pipe, oSovg, a tooth), relates to this structure. 



