161 



Supplement on the Insectivora. 



This name, in its literal signification, might be applied to 

 a very extensive assemblage of the animal world. Some of 

 the Lemurs, several of the smaller Simiee, and many of the 

 Rodentia or Glires, are truly insectivorous. We have also 

 seen that most of the Bats are principally sustained on in- 

 sects. Our author, however, in his classification, restricts 

 the application of the term to a particular tribe of mara- 

 miferous Carnassiers, which forms the second family of 

 that order. In this family he comprehends the genera, 

 or rather subgenera, Hedgehog, Shrew, Desman, Sca- 

 lope, Chrysoclore, Tenrec, and Mole ; which, like the 

 Cheiroptera or Bats, have cheek-teeth, bristling with conic 

 points. Their mode of existence is not only nocturnal, 

 but for the most part subterranean, whence Illiger has 

 named *bis corresponding order Subterranea. It may be 

 remarked* that a similar formation of the cheek-teeth, 

 namely that with shajrp tubercles, obtains in all insectivo- 

 rous animals, even though they do not belong to the family 

 we are about to describe. This conformity of the teeth with 

 the nutriment of the animal is a very general law of nature. 



The family of Insectivora, as we have seen in the text, is 

 conveniently divided into two tribes, distinct from each other 

 by 'the* position and'refcafeive proportion of their incisive and 

 canine teeth. The first having long incisors like those of 

 the Rodentia, and short canines sometimes called lateral 

 incisors, ambigui, or false canine teeth ; and the second with 

 small incisive and longer canine teeth as in the Quadruma 

 CarnivflIP, fyc. The former tribe includes all the subgenera 

 of this family except the Tenrecs, Moles, and Condylure of 

 Illiger, which compose the latter. 



We have accordingly given a figure of the general system 

 of dentition in these two tribes, to which are added ex- 

 amples of the variations in the cheek teeth, which, though 



Vol. II. M 



