JUMPING SHRE WS. 3 1 5 



fringe of long hairs, arranged like the barbs of a feather. The general colour of 

 the fur is blackish-brown above, with the cheeks and lower-parts yellowish, and a 

 dark streak running backwards from the muzzle to encircle the eye ; while the 

 tail is black, with most of the long hairs of the " pen " white. The first specimen 

 known was captured by Mr. Low in the house of Sir James Brooke, at Sarawak ; 

 and the species was considered to be confined to that island. Of late it has, 

 however, been discovered in some of the small islands in the neighbourhood of 

 Borneo^ 



Fossil Tree- As is the case with many of the Mammals of the Oriental region, 



shrews. \^ tree-shrews were represented in Europe during the middle of 

 the Tertiary period by certain extinct genera. One of these (Lanthanotherium) 

 appears to have been very nearly related to the living tree-shrews, while the other 

 (Galerix or Parasorex) presents characters that connect it both with the tree-shrews 

 and the jumping shrews. 



THE JUMPING SHREWS. 



Family MACEOSCELIDID^!. 



As the tree-shrews simulate the squirrels in the Rodent order, so the jumping 

 shrews approximate in form to the gerboas and gerbils. But while the resem- 

 blance in the former instance is a case of true mimicry, in the other it appears 

 to be merely due to adaptation for a similar mode of life. 



The jumping shrews, or, as they are sometimes called, in allusion to their pro- 

 longed snouts, elephant-shrews, are the African representatives of the tree-shrews, 

 with which they agree in many points of their structure, although not in habits. 

 They are exclusively confined to Africa ; and while agreeing with the members of 

 the preceding family in the relatively large size of their brains, as well as in certain 

 other features of their internal anatomy, they are distinguished by structural 

 differences entitling them to be regarded as the representatives of a separate 

 family. Among these differences we may refer to the circumstance that the 

 socket of the eye is not surrounded by a bony ring, but is open behind. Then, 

 again, the metatarsus, or that portion of the foot immediately below the ankle- 

 joint, instead of being of the normal proportions, is greatly elongated, so as to make 

 the whole foot nearly as long as the lower leg. Further, instead of pursuing an 

 arboreal and diurnal life, like the tree-shrews, the jumping shrews restrict them- 

 selves to the ground, upon which they progress by leaps, and are mainly or entirely 

 nocturnal. 



The typical jumping shrews, constituting the genus Macroscelides, 

 ' of which a species (M. typicus) is represented in the illustration on 

 the following page, are characterised by the number of their teeth and toes. With 

 one exception, these animals have 42 teeth, of which are incisors, -}- canines, and 

 f cheek-teeth on either side of the jaws. Invariably they possess five toes on the 

 fore-feet ; while, with the single exception above mentioned, where there are but 

 four, the same number obtains in the hind-foot. Their ears are large, and the tail 

 naked and rat-like. 



