26 PAL^EOSPALAX. 



no longer represented in this island by living species, is 

 established by a single fossil in the British Museum, con- 

 sisting of a portion of the left branch of the lower jaw, 

 (figs. 12 and 13,) containing the three true molars, w, and 

 three premolar teeth, p ; it was discovered by the Rev. 

 Mr. Green of Bacton, in the lacustrine formation above de- 

 scribed at Ostend. 



The size of the fossil, and the obvious insectivorous 

 Fig. 13. character presented by the sharp cusps with which 

 the crowns of the molar teeth are bristled, might 

 naturally lead, in the first instance, to its com- 

 parison with the common Hedgehog ; from this 

 the fossil is distinguished by its relatively larger 

 and more complicated last molar, and by the 

 smaller and more simple fourth molar in advance, 

 which unequivocally represents, in the fossil, the last of 

 the series of false molars, whilst in the Hedgehog, the 

 corresponding tooth has the same quadricuspid crown as 

 the antepenultimate true molar. The form of the jaw 

 is, also, different in the Hedgehog, the lower contour, 

 beneath the true molars, being more convex. From the 

 genera of exotic Hedgehogs, called Centetes, Ericulus^ and 

 Echinops, the fossil is still more distinct, by the smaller 

 number, and larger relative size, the square crown, and 

 quinque-cuspid structure of the true molar teeth : from 

 Gymnurus it differs in the smaller relative size of the pre- 

 molars ; and by the same character it is sufficiently, though 

 less markedly, distinguished from Glisorex tana. The teeth 

 of the fossil make a nearer approach to those of Tupaia 

 javanica, but differ in the closer approximation of the 

 three premolars, and in the small size of the middle one. 

 The closest resemblance to the forms and proportions of 

 the six teeth preserved in the fossil is found in the family 



