ORDER IV. 

 INSECTIVORA. 



now proceed to those families which are con- 

 sidered to be still more truly insectivorous, although 

 even among them, many have occasional habits of 

 a frugivorous regimen. They have, like the Chei- 

 roptera^ the molar teeth entirely covered with coni- 

 cal points, but their teats are invariably ventral; 

 the mode of life is mostly nocturnal, or under the 

 earth, pursuing worms, insects, and larvae ; and. in 

 higher latitudes, commonly hibernating in a lethar- 

 gic state. Although they have no lateral mem- 

 branes, they are never destitute of clavicles; the 

 feet are short, mostly plantigrade, with but little 

 rapidity in their movements. They vary in the 

 position and relative proportion of the incisors and 

 canines, some having long incisors forward, followed 

 by others, and by canines, all lower than the molars ; 

 a kind of dentition which we have already noticed 

 among the Quadrumana in the genus Tarsius, and 

 which slightly approximates the Rodentia: others 

 have large canines separated by small incisors, 

 in which arrangement they resemble the ordinary 

 Quadrumana and Carnassiers, but these two kinds 

 of dental disposition occur in genera otherwise very 



