Order INSECTIVOEA. 



This is a group of small, chiefly insect-eating animals, 

 often differing very materially from one another in 

 external appearance. The majority are characterized, 

 however, by the possession of a pointed snout (on the 

 upper lip) projecting beyond the lower jaw. Their 

 molar teeth are provided with projections, called cusps, 

 and their canines are weak and small. The feet are 

 usually provided with five toes furnished with claws. 

 The teeth number 40 to 42. 



Family MACKOSCELID^. 



Molar teeth broad, with the cusps forming a W shape. 

 The muzzle is long and tapering, with the nostrils 

 situated at the end of the snout. The fore limbs are short 

 and the hind legs are much longer, the tarsus being shorter 

 than the lower portion of the leg (or metatarsus), the 

 animal resting on this after the manner of a kangaroo. 

 The tail is long and almost devoid of hair. 



In South Africa we have two genera of these strange 

 long-snouted little mammals, the first being Macroscelides. 

 Trouessart recognized four South African species, and 

 W. L. Sclater in his "Mammals : Fauna of South Africa " 

 mentions five ; since then several species and sub-species 

 have been added by Oldfield Thomas and his colleagues 

 of the British Museum from material collected for the 

 Eudd Survey of South Africa. As it would be idle to 

 attempt a complete account of these little animals in a 

 work of this nature, it must suffice if we mention the 



