382 
NATURAL HISTORY. 
where it lives in burrows which it digs in the earth. Its total length is little more than four inches, 
and its fur, which is very silky and thick, is of a grey colour with a greenish brown tinge. The feet 
are whitish and the nails white. 
In the preceding sketch of the Insectivorous order of Mammals, we have followed in general the 
classification proposed by Professor Mivart, and slightly modified by Mr. Gill. The following summary 
of the arrangement will be useful for reference : — 
Sub-order I. — DERMOPTERA. 
Family 1. Galeopitiiecidj3. 
Genus — Galeopithecus. 
Sub-order II.— INSECTIVORA YERA. 
Family 2. Tupaiid-h. 
Genera — Tupaia, Ptilocercus, Hylomys. 
Family 3. Macroscelidid.t?. 
Genera — Macroscelid.es, Petrodromus, Rhychocyon. 
Family 4. Erinaceid.e. 
Genera — Erinaceus, Gymnura. 
Family 5. CentetcdvE. 
Genera — Centetes, Ilcmicentetes, Ericulus, Echi- 
nops, Oryzorictes, Solenodon. 
Family 6. Potamogalid^e. 
Genus — Potamogale. 
Family 7. Chrysochloridje. 
Genera — Chrysochloris, Chalcochloris. 
Family 8. Talpidje. 
Genera — Talpa, Parascaptor, Mogera, Scaptochirus, 
Scaptonyx, Condylura, Scalops, Scapanus. 
Family 9. Myogalid-E. 
Genera — Myogale, Urotrichus, Uropsilus. 
Family 10. Soricidje. 
Genera — Sorex, Blarina, Crocidura, Crossopus, 
Neetogale, Anurosorex. 
Only in one respect have we thought it desirable to depart from Professor Mivart’s system, namely, 
in raising the Desmans ( Jljogalidce ) to the rank of a distinct family. This course was adopted for the 
sake of simplicity in the classification, as the combination of characters presented by those animals 
places them so remarkably between the Moles and the Shrews, that from a zoological point of view 
they cannot satisfactorily be referred to either. 
One thing that will strike the reader at once is the great number of family types, for the most 
part strongly characterised, that can be distinguished in so small an order. Mr. Wallace estimates the 
total number of species of Insectivora at 135, and of these about 65, or nearly one-half, belong to the 
single family of the Shrews, leaving about 70 species for all the other families; and of these 34 species, 
or again nearly one-half, are referred to the two widely distributed groups the Hedgehogs and the 
Moles. 
Considering these facts, and the clear differentiation of most of the forms, notwithstanding the 
existence of those types already alluded to, which in several of the families seem to lead towards the 
Soricidxe, we can hardly avoid agreeing with Mr. Wallace in regarding the existing Insectivora as 
“ the detached fragments of a much more extensive group of animals, now almost extinct,” a view 
which is strongly corroborated by the geographical distribution of the animals. 
Curiously enough several of the smaller and more peculiar families are limited much in the same 
way as the Pteropine Bats and Lemurs, chiefly to the countries surrounding the great Indian ocean, 
beneath which, as we have already stated, the hypothetical continent of Lemuria is very probably 
submerged. The Galeopitheckhe and Tupaiidse are almost confined to the Malayan region, and the 
Centetidse (with the exception of the anomalous genus Solenodon) are peculiar to Madagascar ; the 
Macroscelididse have their home on the eastern coast of Africa, except a single species which occurs in 
the northern part of that continent ; the Clirysochloridae are exclusively South African ; and the 
curious P otrimogale inhabits some of the West African rivers. Thus, except in the case of Solenodon, 
the whole of these groups are now represented solely within the region inhabited by the Pteropine 
Bats. Does this point to a “Lemurian” origin, or at any rate to a great former development in the 
Lemurian land, of the Insectivorous Mammalia 1 
Of the more widely distributed families, the Erinaceidse occur chiefly in the northern temperate 
regions of the Eastern hemisphere, stretching away continuously from Europe and the North African 
