PROFESSOR .\rXJIAN OX THE CHARACTERS 



extremity with very short hairs, which gradually increase in length as tliey approach the 

 angles of the mouth. Tlie upper side of the head, with the back and the entire tail, 

 and the outer side of the fore and hind limbs are dark brown. The whole of the 

 underside of the body, from the extremity of the nose to the vent, is brownish yellow. 



The fine hairs which constitute the shorter and denser coat are seen under the 

 microscope to be of uniform thickness, mth the cortical substance presenting an im- 

 bricated structure, and the cells composing the medullary substance so disposed as to 

 give a septate appearance to the interior of the hair (fig. 1 b). The long hairs. A, which 

 project from this coat have a remarkable form : commencing very thin at the bulb, 

 they gradually increase in thickness for about a third of the entire length of the hair, 

 then suddenly contract, and immediately after expand into a broad lanceolate lamina, 

 which terminates in a fine point. The basal portion of these hairs has a thin imbri- 

 cated cortical investment and medullary contents, which consist of an aggregation of 

 small spherical cells («'). In the broad lamina, the cortical portion has acquired greater 

 tliickness, has lost its imbricated character, and is seen to be composed of minute longi- 

 tudinally arranged fusiform cells ; the medullary substance is here composed of aggre- 

 gated spherical cells like those of the basal portion of the hair, and dies out before it 

 reaches the point (a-, a^). The remarkable difference thus observed between the two 

 kinds of iiair presents us with a condition not unusual among the Insectivora, and one 



which finds its maximum in the aculeate genera of this order. 

 Fig. 2. 



Fia. 3. 



Head -i-iowcd from abuvo. Head viewed tj-om below. 



The muzzle is long and broad, and so much appressed as to acquire a somewhat spatu- 

 late form (figs. 2, 3). It projects in front for half an inch beyond the extremity of the 

 lower jaw, and for more than a quarter of an inch beyond the jaw at its sides ; the angles 

 of the mouth are situated at about a quarter of an inch in front of a vertical line from 

 the eyes. Each nostril opens beneath the external edge of a cartilaginous valve, which 



