144 INSECTIVOEA. 



most strikes one in observing it is a feature connected with its caudal vertebrae to be 

 mentioned hereafter. 



The vertebrae are C. 7,' D. 14, L. 5, S. 4, C. 20. The spinous processes of the last 

 five cervical and first dorsal vertebrae are only rudimentary, and the neural arches 

 are antero-posteriorly narrow. The spine of the second dorsal is only moderately 

 developed and directed upwards and backwards, but the spines behind it, as far as 

 the tenth vertebra, decrease in size, and are very much depressed and confined to the 

 posterior margin of the neural arch. The spinous processes of the remaining dorsal 

 vertebrae have an antero-posterior extension co-extensive with the breadth of the 

 neural arch, and all are directed forwards, and, with the exception of the first which 

 is thin and plate-like, they are transversely thick and low, with flattened summits. 

 The spines of the lumbar region preserve the same characters with the last men- 

 tioned. A minute process occurs on the side of the neural arch of each of the 

 last five cervical and first and second dorsal vertebrae ; it is placed nearer to the 

 spinous process than to the zygapophysis. In the fifth dorsal a minute hyperapo- 

 physis makes its appearance and rapidly increases in size, attaining its maximum 

 in the last lumbar. The lateral neural processes of the cervical appear to be 

 serially homologous with these dorsal and lumbar hyperapophyses. 



The transverse processes of the cervical vertebrae are short and rod-like, and 

 overlap, but without touching each other ; their inferior lamellae are shorter and 

 more pointed. The transverse process of the sixth is long, its anterior portion being 

 stouter than the lamellae in front of it, and its hinder half projects downwards and 

 backwards below, but rather widely separated from the head of the first rib, and 

 is long and somewhat sickle-shaped. A small eminence makes its appearance 

 posteriorly on the summit of the short transverse process of the third dorsal vertebra. 

 On the fourth vertebra it is a prominent, forwardly projecting process, occupying 

 the middle of the lateral surface of the neural arch above, and remote from the 

 slight projection on the side of the vertebra at the union of the lamina and centrum 

 to which the tubercle of the rib is articulated. As it is traced backwards to the 

 eleventh dorsal vertebra it approaches more and more to the anterior zygapophysis, 

 till at last it is closely in contact with it and touches the hinder margin of the 

 posterior zygapophysis of the vertebra in front of it, thus meriting to be regarded 

 as a metapophysis. In all these vertebrae its base is parallel with the spinal axis. 

 In the twelfth dorsal a small process appears between the anterior and posterior 

 zygapophysis, slightly below the level of the process I have just decribed on the 

 eleventh dorsal, but on a line with the articular surface of the anterior zygapophysis, 

 but, unlike the previous process, it is directed backwards, yet so gradual is the 

 change in level that the two appear to be continuations of one and the same element. 

 On the thirteenth dorsal a similar process occurs, but it is slightly more posterior 

 in its position, being nearer the posterior than the anterior zygapophysis, and at a 

 relatively lower level, being on a line with the inferior, anterior margin of the latter 



' Owing to an accident, the atlas and axis were lost in removing the skull for examination. 



