1. TENDRAC.     2. TELFAIR’S TENDRAC.     3. TANREC.

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LARGER IMAGE]

The Bulau has a long, round, tapering, scaly tail, almost like that of a Rat, but with a greater number of scattered stiff hairs among the scales. Its head is long, and its muzzle produced into a short proboscis. Its legs are rather short, and its feet, which are adapted to plantigrade progression, are furnished with five toes, each armed with a curved and pointed claw. The general colour of the body and limbs is black or greyish-black, with the head and neck pale or whitish, and with a black streak over each eye; the tail is blackish at the base, whitish at the tip. The length of the Bulau is about twenty-six inches, of which the tail occupies twelve. Besides Sumatra, this curious animal, which may be regarded as a connecting link between the Hedgehogs and the Shrews, has been met with in the peninsula of Malacca, and in Borneo, and the neighbouring island of Sarawak. The specimens from Sarawak and the mainland of Borneo opposite Labuan are said by Dr. Günther to be all white, with only a portion of the longest and strongest hairs on the body black. Of the habits of the Bulau nothing appears to be recorded.

Professor Gill is inclined to place that almost equally curious animal, Hylomys suillus (see [p. 350]), in juxtaposition with the Bulau.

FAMILY V.—CENTETIDÆ, OR TANRECS.

The animals of this family usually have the back more or less armed with fine spines or bristles among the softer hair, the legs short, the feet five-toed, plantigrade, and the tail very short or altogether wanting, except in one anomalous genus. They are all furnished with external ears. The skull is rather elongated, approximately cylindrical, and has no zygomatic arches. The tympanic bone does not form a bubble-like protuberance; and the molar teeth are narrow, and form more or less regular triangular prisms. The number of teeth is variable. The clavicles (collar-bones) are well developed; the two bones of the shank (tibia and fibula) are separate; and the intestine has no cæcum.

With the single exception of the curious genus Solenodon, the position of which was long regarded as very doubtful, but which is now placed in this family, the Centetidæ are confined to the Madagascar region, which bears so many other peculiar types of animals. Their food appears to consist chiefly of worms and insects, but doubtless, like their relations the Hedgehogs, they will seize upon any small animal that comes in their way. The species are not numerous.

THE TANREC.[265]

The Tanrec, or Tangue, which is the best-known species of the family, is entirely destitute of tail. It has a long, pointed muzzle, small ears, and short legs; the five-toed feet are armed with strong claws, and the body is not capable of being contracted into a ball; the angle of the lower jaw is slightly bent inwards; and the teeth are forty in number, there being on each side, in each jaw, three incisors, one canine, three premolars, and three true molars. The canines, both above and below, are of exceedingly large size; those of the lower jaw are received into deep pits in the sides of the intermaxillary bone; while those of the upper jaw project downwards on each side of time lower jaw. These are the characters of the genus Centetes.