1895.] SOTJTH-AMEEICASr MAEStTPIAL. 871 



positive about the exact position and relationships of the little 

 marsupial described by Mr. Tomes. 



It unfortunately happened that the name given by Mr. Tomes, 

 Hyracodon \ was preoccupied by the Ungulate Hyracodon of Leidy '\ 

 so that the genus has now had to be renamed, and I have proposed 

 for it^ the name Ccenolestes * , as it is a modern member of an 

 ancient group of fossil marsupials, among which the affix -testes has 

 been often employed. 



The specimen on which the present account is based was 

 obtained near Bogota by an Indian in the employment of my kind 

 Colombian correspondent Mr. Greo. D. Child, and the latter is to 

 be congratulated on the capture of such a prize. In fact the 

 rediscovery of Tomes's genus, both on account of its having so 

 long been a puzzle to zoologists, and still more on account of the 

 relationship it proves to possess to long extinct fossil forms, I 

 venture to consider one of the most interesting events that have 

 happened in mammalogy for many years. 



Comparing it, as one may not unnaturally do, with Dr. Stirling's 

 discovery of Notoryctes, also representing an additional family of 

 Marsupials, one sees that while the latter is of surpassing interest 

 to the general zoologist on account of the entire novelty of its 

 structure and its unique adaptation (among Marsupials) to a 

 talpine life, Ccenolestes, with its uninteresting exterior, appeals 

 mainly to the technical Mammalogist. To him, however, with its 

 intense palaeontological and geographical interest, and the added 

 puzzle its structure gives rise to in the general classification of the 

 order, no animal wUl appear more important or more worthy of 

 close and detailed study. 



That by the arrival of spirit-specimens any such admirable 

 account of its anatomy may be rendered possible as the one on 

 Notoryctes by Dr. Gadow is very much to be hoped. The present 

 specimen is a skin with a perfect skull. It is an old individual, 

 and the teeth are apparently rather worn, so that for a clear 

 detailed knowledge of their structure we must still wait for further 

 examples. With this exception the following is a description of 

 the genus, so far as the external characters and skull are 

 concerned. To keep the description together and to avoid 

 repetition, I have included both such characters as may possibly 

 prove to be only of specific value and those that are clearly of 

 family rank. A short analysis of them is, however, given 

 later. 



It has been found necessary (Z. c.) to consider the Bogotan 

 example as representing a new species, named Ccenolestes ohscurus, 

 but it is evidently so closely allied to 0. fulic/inosus that for the 



^ I am informed by Mr. Sclater that this name had no reference to Hyrax as 

 zoologists know it, i. e. Procavia, but Lo iipa^, a shrew, the word therefore most 

 appropriately meaning Shrew-tooth. 



2 Proc. Ac. Philad. viii. p. 91 (1856). 



3 Ann. Mag. N. H. (6) xvi. p. 367 (1895). 



* K-ati'os, modern ; Xjjirrijs, a pirate or other predatory person. 



