214 
MR, W. K. PARKER OK THE STRUCTURE AND 
slightly overlapping squamosals, with which they partly coalesce, and then ride over 
the prootic plates, with a concave edge; then, as if for purposes of architectural 
ornament, the “lateral sinus” ( s.c .) throws its low arch over the whole of these 
temporal sutures; three foramina are seen close to it, one in front, one in the middle, 
and another over it, near its hind part. 
Wedged in between the parietal and squamosal, the curved prootic plate ( pr.o'.) is 
seen; its fore-part is like a pruning knife; its hind part passes insensibly into the 
epiotic and opisthotic regions, where the three canals ( a.s.c ., h.s.c., p.s.c.), by their 
burrowing, mark the outer face of the bone, which is very thin over them. The 
occipital condyles ( oc.c .), are large, bold, and pyriform in outline ; between them and 
the opisthotic region (op.) the ex-occipitals (e.o.) are wedged, scarcely forming any 
definite paroccipital process. Over the whole, like half a dome, the great supraoccipital 
(s.o .) is seen. 
The lower jaw (seen from the inside) is very small, but strong; it is hinged half 
way between the front of the nasal bones and the occiput. ' The coronoid process 
(figs. 3, 3a, c.p.) is high, vertical, and scooped on its inner face; the articular process 
(cd.p.) is sub-triangular, thick, and has a two-faced condyle ( gl.c .); the angular process 
( ag.p .) is long, terete, and incurved at its end; the dentary canal (neuro-vascular passage) 
begins under the muscular fossa of the coronoid process. The teeth, here, as above, 
are curiously mimetic of the mandibles of Coleopterous Insects—the food, especially 
of the Shrew, who, himself, is less than some of the members of the Beetle Family. 
In the lower view (Plate 19, fig. 2) the snout ( al.n .) is partly supported by the pro¬ 
truding incisors; and the bony palate, between the fine dental armature, is a high 
triangle, whose short base is behind; this boundary is directly transverse, but some¬ 
what bracket-shaped, and is strongly limbate. The longitudinal extent of the pre- 
maxillaries (px. ) is one-seventh that of the whole hard palate; they are very partially 
distinct from each other, and from the maxillaries (mx.) ; the anterior palatine 
foramina (a.p.f) are small. So also are the posterior foramina (p.p.f), and they are 
some distance in front of the persistent palato-maxillary suture. The fused maxillary 
plate is subcarinate in its middle third, under the junction of these bones with the 
vomer; the fore half of the middle palatine suture persists, and that part of the hard 
palate has four small foramina; its fore margin wedges in between the maxillaries, 
and yet its extent is less than half of the plate formed by the latter bones. 
The jugal processes of the maxillaries projecting beyond the last tooth-socket make 
the narrow-waisted part, next following, very remarkable. In the distance, the orbital 
plates of the frontal and the rounded supraorbital edge are seen beyond the open 
region of the palate. The thick, spongy walls of the nasopalatine passage ( n.p.p ) are 
equal in width to that passage; and the roof, where the forks of the vomer (v.) end, is 
perforated with holes and slits. 
The pterygoids and palatines (pg., pa.) are thoroughly fused together, and are 
equally confluent with the posterior sphenoid ( al.s ., b.s.). The hamular processes 
