72 MR. ST. GEORGE MIVART ON HEMTCENTETES. [Jail. 17, 



Centetid.e. 



I. t± or ?=§, C. i^i, M. |^j. Skull very cylindrical, broadest 

 between the glenoid surfaces ; no zygoma ; no postorbital process ; 

 no process and, generally, no ridge in front of the orbit ; temporal 

 fossa large ; no pterygoid fossa ; tympanic a mere ring, not forming 

 a bulla ; paroccipital and mastoid processes ; nasals more or less 

 united ; malar imperforate ; a glenoid, but no distinct carotid fora- 

 men ; foramen rotundum one with sphenoidal fissure ; optic foramen 

 very small, but not forming a long canal ; no suboptic foramen ; 

 infraorbital canal short and wide ; lachrymal foramen opening close 

 to, or just in front of, anterior margin of orbit ; a true alisphenoid 

 canal ; no external alisphenoid canal ; upper true molars each form- 

 ing one triangular prism, the two external principal cusps of a qua- 

 dricuspid molar being here represented by a single prominence; 

 lower true molars with very small posterior processes. Fifteen to 

 nineteen dorsal vertebrae ; lumbar processes small ; no hypapophyses 

 in the trunk, but distinct hyperapophyses ; scapula with an obtuse 

 metacromion process ; a supracondyloid foramen to humerus ; mostly 

 an os intermedium ; pubic symphysis very small, sometimes widely 

 open ; tibia and fibula distinct * ; metatarsus short ; five digits to 

 each extremity; no caecum. 



JIab. Madagascar and West Indies. 



Centetes t, Illiger. 



I tr 2 or jj=| P.M. t^l. No interorbital constriction ; skull ex- 

 ceedingly cylindrical ; posterior margin of palate thickened ; meso- 

 pterygoid fossa ending posteriorly in an excavation of the basis 

 cranii ; slightly marked prominence from the inferior margin of the 

 mandible, and placed some distance in front of the angle ; a glenoid 

 foramen ; posterior palatine foramen large ; no defects of ossification 

 in palate ; ascending ramus of mandible only slightly concave exter- 

 nally ; canines long, pointed ; apex of lower canine received into a 

 fossa ; first upper incisor small ; second upper premolar not like the 

 true molars ; eighteen or nineteen dorsal vertebrae ; a scapho-lunar 

 bone ; an os intermedium. 



Hah. Madagascar. 



Hemicentetes, Mivart. 

 I. ?r| f P.M.^|. No interorbital constriction; skull exceedingly 

 elongated and tapering anteriorly ; nasals partly united ; infra- 

 orbital canal very short and wide ; lachrymal foramen opening just 

 in front of the anterior margin of the orbit ; mesopterygoid fossa 



* I presume that Eckhwps agrees with the other genera of the Ccntetidce in 

 this character. 



+ De Blainville, ' Insectivores,' pis. iv., vi., & x. ; P. Cuvier, ' Dents des Mam- 

 miferes,' no. xix. ; Owen, ' Odontography,' pi. ex. fig. 6 ; Wagner, Schreb. Suppl. 

 ii. p. 30, v. p. 582. 



