998 



INSECTIVORA. 



carpal portion of the hand ; and it is only the 

 long sharp nails which extend beyond the skin, 

 and are externally visible. 



The position then of the anterior extremity 

 of the animal is this : the humerus is so placed 

 that the inferior or distal extremity is the most 

 raised, so that the fore-arm is kept in a state 

 between pronation and supination, the elbow 

 raised, the radius and the thumb placed down- 

 wards, and the palm of the hand directed out- 

 wards. When to this we add the peculiar 

 flexion of the last phalanx of the fingers with 

 the enormous nails, we have a fossorial struc- 

 ture not equalled by any other in the whole 

 of the vertebrated animals, and only imitated 

 by the no less remarkable anomaly amongst 

 insects, the Gryllotalpa or mole-cricket. 



In Chrysochtoris the third and fourth fingers 

 are united by one large powerful nail, and are 

 developed to an extraordinary size (fig- 445), 



Fig. 445. 



the fifth finger being reduced to a minute ru- 

 diment ; and the carpal bones are placed in an 

 abrupt curve, so that the outer side of the fifth 



finger approaches the first. The os pmforme as- 

 sumes also a peculiar development, being veiy 

 much elongated, rises in the direction of the 

 forearm, and is actually articulated with the 

 internal condyle of the humerus. 



The pelvis in the Talpida and Soricid<e is 

 extremely long. The ilia are narrow and 

 pointed at the anterior part. In the last-named 

 family, the pubis and the ischium are especially 

 long and narrow. In Chrysochloris, on the 

 contrary, the ischium is very broad. 



The femur offers but few and unimportant 

 particularities amongst the Insectivora, unless 

 it be that there is in the mole and Chrysochloris 

 a sort of third trochanter; a process which is also 

 found in some of the lower Quadrumana, and 

 in some other of the Mammifera. The fibula 

 is united to the tibia for nearly the inferior third 

 of their length, in the Talpufa, the Soricida, 

 and the Erinaceada. In the mole this union 

 is to a greater extent than perhaps in any other 

 animal of the Mammiferous class. 



The hinder feet in the whole of this order 

 are plantigrade. In the mole, as Daubenton 

 and Meckel have observed, there is an addi- 

 tional tarsal bone, to those which are ordinarily 

 found. It is of considerable size, and seems to 

 answer to the falciform bone of the anterior 

 extremities already described. It is of an 

 uniform shape, of considerable size, and is arti- 

 culated between the scaphoid and the first 

 cuneiform bone, and extends forwards along 

 the first metatarsal. 



II. Muscles. The extraordinary develope- 

 ment of the bones of the anterior extremity in 

 the mole, will, of course, be associated with 

 a no less remarkable structure in the muscles 

 of the same part ; and the known habits of the 

 animal will account equally for the necessity 

 of such a structure in both. I give a figure 

 of the muscles of the anterior extremity and 

 of the anterior part of the trunk from Carus. 

 (Fig. 446.) 



Fig. 446. 



