8 SOLENODON PARADOXUS. 
and under every movable article in the cage. They have a pronounced odor, 
not disagreeable, and reminding one slightly of that of a goat or a porcupine, 
yet characteristically different. 
Verrill states that a female in his possession gave birth to three young, 
which, however, she promptly devoured. One of the females in the lot belong- 
ing to the Museum likewise brought forth her young in captivity, but in this 
case but a single one was found. If others were born, they too must have 
been devoured. This young one when probably a day or so old had the eyes 
and ears still closed. The hair was beginning to appear, although not sufficiently 
to clothe the body. It was a female (Plate 1, fig. 1) and had the single pair 
of mammae well developed. It lived but three days, at the end of which time 
the first upper and the two first lower incisors were erupted, but the eyes and 
the ears were as yet unopened. 
EXTERNAL APPEARANCE. 
In general form Solenodon is shrew-like, with a long tapering snout, elongate 
head and a stout tail. The feet and limbs are not notably modified, though 
the fore claws are greatly developed. The great development of the snout 
beyond the nasal bones is a striking peculiarity, shared, however, to some 
extent by the African genera Macroscelides and Rhynchocyon. This proboscis 
in Solenodon paradocus is cartilaginous, and consists of a long tube, quadrangular 
in section (Plate 5, fig. 2) and deeper than wide. The nasal septum divides the 
cavity of the proboscis and is continued into the nasal chamber; a projecting 
ridge on each side of the septum, partly divides the lumen of the proboscis into a 
dorsal and a ventral tube. At its proximal end the proboscis is ventrally sup- 
ported by a small round bone, the os proboscidis, and laterally it is held in place 
by a short triangular cartilage on each side from the upper free edges of the 
premaxillaries. These cartilages are loosely bound to the sides of the proboscis 
by connective tissue. The tip of the snout has a naked rhinarium about a centi- 
meter in length ventrally whose posterior border is ill defined dorsally just pos- 
terior to the nostrils, but below it is sharply marked off from the surrounding 
haired surfaces by a slight groove. A median groove runs from the upper 
incisors to the tip of the snout which here is slightly emarginate. The nostrils 
open laterally and are somewhat crescentiform. The sides of the snout are 
supplied with about a dozen large vibrissae, the longest of which measure about 
65mm. There are in addition shorter hairs from swollen bases, that are coarser 
