INSECTIVORA. 



995 



racter in the structure of the hair, which favours 

 the habits I have mentioned, and which will 

 be presently described. In the Erinaceada (see 

 Jig. 451) we still have hibernating animals, but 

 these, instead of burrowing or descending into 

 deep excavations, conceal themselves only under 

 leaves, or in any superficial hollow, and live 

 upon food which they either find upon the sur- 

 face or dig out of the ground with their hard 

 moveable muzzle ; the character of their integu- 

 ment is very peculiar, the hair being modified 

 into spines of a greater or less degree of firmness, 

 and the animals being mostly capable of rolling 

 themselves into a ball, and thus presenting a 

 panoply of sharp spines to their enemies. The 

 last-named group, which I have named Tupai- 

 ad&i (jig. 452) partake, as before observed, 

 of the character of the Insectivorous Quadru- 

 mana; living in trees, which they climb with 

 all the agility of a monkey or a squirrel. They 

 Consist but of a single genus, named by the late 

 Sir Stamford Raffles, Tupaia, of which three 

 species are well distinguished. They are na- 

 tives of Java. 



I. Osteology. It can scarcely be said that 

 there is any peculiarity of structure in the ske- 

 letons of the whole of the insectivora, in which 

 they differ essentially from other groups ; but 

 on the other hand, there are many in which 

 they differ from each other, according to the 

 very striking and obvious diversity of their ha- 

 bits. In the family Talpida, the genus Talpa 

 (Jig. 440) presents itself as the type. In these 

 animals the cranium is greatly elongated, and 

 of a tapering or conical form, a character 

 which it partakes with the Soricidte, but to 

 a still more remarkable degree. The cra- 

 nium of the Chrysochloris, or Cape-mole, the 

 South African representative of this family, 

 presents this character in the most regular 

 form. It is, in fact, a perfect cone, short, pointed 

 at the muzzle, broad behind, where the base of 

 the cone is distinctly circumscribed by a crest, 

 which passes from the root of the zygomatic 

 arch of one side, over the vertex, to the cor- 

 responding point on the other ; on the sides of 

 the head the zygomatic arches themselves com- 

 plete the cone, passing obliquely and in a 

 straight line from the maxillary to the temporal 

 bone, and beneath it is completed by the in- 

 clination inwards of the symphysis, the 

 rami, and the coracoid processes of the lower 

 jaw. The portion posterior to the base of the 

 cone is rounded. 



In the genera Talpa ( 'Jig .441) and Condt/tura 

 the head is equally but less regularly conical, 

 and the snout is more elongated; the zygomatic 



Fig. 441. 



arch is extremely slender, and rises obliquely, 

 joining the cranium considerably above the audi- 

 tory meatus. A similar conformation is seen in the 

 genus Scalops, which I have already mentioned 

 as leading from the Talpida to the Soricidte. 

 This form is admirably suited for their subter- 

 ranean progression, as they push their way 

 through the soil by their long moveable snout, 

 which acts in some measure as a wedge. 

 Amongst the Soricidte, the Scalops approaches 

 in its structure most nearly to the Talpida, 

 having the almost perfectly conical form of the 

 head which belongs to that family ; and all the 

 Soricida partake of it to a greater or less degree. 

 But the cranium of the Erinaceada approaches 

 more nearly to that of the Carnivora; and 

 viewed from above, the sides are nearly parallel, 

 the zygomatic arches projecting further than the 

 posterior part of the cranium. The muzzle 

 is shorter, more obtuse, and somewhat 

 narrower than the cranium, which is com- 

 pressed forwards. In Centenes the head is 

 much more elongated and conical. The genus 

 Tupaia has the head nearly oval, the muzzle 

 straight, prominent, much smaller than the cra- 

 nium, the zygomatic arches but slightly pro- 

 minent, and the circle of the orbit closed pos- 

 teriorly, a circumstance which is not found in 

 any other of the order Insectivora. In this 



Fig. 440. 



3x2 



