1908.] Allen, Notes on Solenodon paradoxus. 507 



the original type of S. paradoxus having been loaned to him by the authori- 

 ties of the St. Petersburg Academy for this purpose. All subsequent ac- 

 counts of this species, down to 1907, have also been based on this unique 

 original, including the discussion of the phylogeny and dentition of Solenodon 

 by Leche in 1907, 1 to whom the skull was again entrusted by the authorities 

 of the St. Petersburg Academy for investigation (Leche, /. c., p. 4). 



As is well known, the genus Solenodon is an isolated type, represented, 

 so far as known, by two species, one of which (S. paradoxus) is confined to 

 Haiti, the other (S. cubanus) to Cuba. It is the sole genus of the family 

 Solenodontidse, which finds its nearest living representatives in the family 

 Centetidse, confined to Madagascar and some of its outlying islands, thus 

 an equally isolated group. Both are commonly regarded as survivals of 

 primitive types, whose ancestral history remains to be discovered. 



The characters of Solenodon have become well known, especially through 



Fig. 1. Solenodon paradoxus. Side view of head of old male. 

 Slightly less than nat. size. 



the labors of Dobson, 2 who has described not only the osteology and denti- 

 tion, but the myology and visceral anatomy, based on S. cubanus; while its 

 phylogeny and dentition have been especially considered by Leche, 3 who 

 has also described and figured the milk dentition of S. cubanus. 



In external characters S. paradoxus and S. cubanus are in general quite 

 similar, but they differ somewhat in size, and markedly in coloration, and 

 also in some other features, as will be presently noted. 



1 Zur Entwichlunersgeschichte des Zahnsystems der Saugetiere zngleich ein Beitrag zur 

 Stammesgeschichte dieser Tiergruppe. Von Wilhelm Leche. Zweiter Teil: Phylogenie. 

 Zweites Heft: Die Familien der Centetidae, Solenodontidae und Chrysochloridae. Mit 4 Tafeln 

 und 108 Textfiguren. Zoologica, Heft 49. Stuttgard, 1907. 



2 A Monograph of the Insectivora, Systematic and Anatomical. By G. E. Dobson. Part 

 I. Including the families Erinaceidse, Centetidse, and Solenodontidae. 1882. (Solenodonti- 

 dae, pp. 87-96, pll. viii, ix.) 



3 Op. cit., pp. 5-24 (passim.), 55, 56, 144-146, pi. iv, figs. 55-58. 



