Order INSECTIVORA. 



The order next to be considered comprises the tree-shrews, hedge- 

 hogs, moles, and shrews, besides several allied groups. A very 

 curious animal called the flying lemur is also included. All are 

 of greatly inferior organization to the Primates and Carnivora, and 

 appear to be less specialized than any other order of placental 

 mammals. 



The account of the Insectivora is taken almost entirely from 

 Mr. (r. E. Dobson's Monograph, and to that work, in which all 

 Indian forms receive full notice, the reader may be referred for 

 complete anatomical details. The following are some of the 

 principal characters of the order, quoted from the work named. 



" Terrestrial, rarely arboreal or natatorial, diphyodont, hetero- 

 dont, placental mammals of small size, with plantigrade or semi- 

 plantigrade, generally pentadactyle, unguiculate feet, with clavicles 

 (except in Potamogale}, with more than two incisors in the mandible, 

 and with enamel-coated molars having tuberculated crowns and 

 well-developed roots. 



" The extremity of the muzzle projects so far beyond the end of 

 the mandible as to be almost characteristic. The testes are in- 

 guinal or abdominal, and are not received into a scrotum ; the 

 uterus is two-horned ; the placenta discoidal and deciduate ; and 

 the smooth cerebral hemispheres do not extend backwards over 

 the cerebellum." 



Although the distinction of the teeth into incisors, canines, pre- 

 molars, and molars is easy in some families, it is, as a rule, much 

 less clear than in the higher Mammalia ; and in many cases, as 

 amongst the shrews, the incisors, canines, and anterior premolars 

 can only be distinguished by their position in the jaw ; the molar 

 teeth are studded with sharp cusps. 



By far the majority of the order are nocturnal, the Tupaiidce 

 being the only exception. The food consists chiefly of insects, 

 except in the case of the aberrant Galeopithecus. 



By most modern naturalists the Insectivora are divided into two 

 suborders, thus distinguished : 



Upper and lower incisors conical, unicuspi- 

 date, or with basal cusps only, the lower 

 not pectinate ; limbs free INSECTIVORA. VEBA. 



Upper and lower incisors compressed, multi- 

 cuspidate, the lower deeply pectinate : 

 anterior and posterior limbs connected 

 by a broad integumentary expansion, 

 forming a parachute DEEMOPTEBA. 



