618 INSECTIVORA 
colour and length of the fur. Their general appearance is very 
Squirrel-like. Their food consists of insects and fruit, which they 
usually seek in the trees, but also occasionally on the ground. 
When feeding they often sit on their haunches, holding the food, 
after the manner of Squirrels, between their fore-paws. 
Pttlocercus..— Represented only by the Pentailed Tree-Shrew 
(P. lowi, Fig. 283) of Borneo, in which the tail is of extraordinary 
length, with the proximal two-thirds naked, and the remaining third 
furnished witha bilateral fringe of long hairs, from which the genus 
takes its name. 
Extinct Genera.—An Insectivore from the Middle Miocene of 
France, described as Lantanotherium, is said to be nearly allied to 
Tupua. The genus Parasorex, from strata of similar age, has the 
dental formula i 3, ¢ 4, p 4, m 3, and is regarded as connecting the 
present with the following family. 
Family MACROSCELIDID. 
Skull with comparatively large brain-case, strong zygomatic 
arch, a tympanic bulla, orbit surrounded by bone, imperforate 
jugal, and usually no postorbital process. Molars broad, with 
four cusps arranged in a W. Pubic symphysis long; proximal end 
of tibia and fibula united; radius and ulna united or separate ; 
metatarsus much longer than tarsus. A large cecum. Habits 
terrestrial, saltatorial, and nocturnal. The family is confined to 
Africa. 
Alacrascelides.°-—Dentition : ¢ 3, ¢ 4, p 4, m x3 ; total 40 or 42. 
Distal extremity of radius and ulna united. Five digits in manus, 
and five or four in pes. This genus, which is taken to include 
Petrodromus, comprises ten species widely distributed throughout the 
African continent. All are closely related, resembling one another 
in general form, and even in the colour of the fur. They fall into 
two groups, distinguished by the presence or absence of a small 
third lower molar.* JZ. tetradactylus (Fig. 284), the type of the 
genus Petrodromus, differs from all the other species in the absence 
of the hallux, and of the third lower molar. These animals are 
commonly known as Jumping Shrews, and, like the following 
genus, have the muzzle much produced. 
Lthynchocyon.A—Dentition : i 3, ¢ 4, p 4, m 2; total 36. Upper 
incisor frequently shed in the adult. Radius and ulna distinct ; 
1 Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1848, p. 23. ° Andrew Smith, S. African Quart. 
Journ, vol. ii. No. 1, p. 64 (1833). 
° The above correct formula of the dentition of this family has been recently 
worked out by 0. Thomas, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1890, pp. 445, 446. 
4 Peters, Bericht k. preuss. Ak. Wiss. 1847, p. 36. 
