three
tuberculated molars posterior to the representative of the
carnivorous or cutting grinder of the true _Carnivora_." All the
molar teeth are studded with sharp points or cusps; the deciduous
teeth are developed and disappear before birth. This order is divided
into four families, viz., _Talpidae_ or Moles, _Sorecidae_ or Shrews,
_Erinaceidae_ or Hedgehogs, and the _Tupaiadae_, Banxrings or
Tree-shrews. Of all these well-defined types are to be found in India,
but America and Africa possess various genera which we have not, such
as the Condylures (_Condylura_, Illiger), the Shrew-moles
(_Scalops_, Cuvier), belonging to _Talpidae_; the Solendons,
Desmans, and Chrysochlores to _Sorecidae_; the Sokinahs, Tenrecs and
Gymnures to _Erinaceidae_; and the Macroscelles or Elephant-mice of
the Cape Colony form another group more allied to _Tupaia_ than the
rest. This last family is the most interesting. Anatomically
belonging to this order, they externally resemble the squirrels so
closely as to have been frequently mistaken for them. The grovelling
Mole and creeping Shrew are as unlike the sprightly Tupaia, as it
springs from branch to branch, whisking its long bushy tail, as it
is possible to conceive. I intend further on to give an illustration
of this little animal. The first we have on record concerning it is
in the papers relating to Captain Cook's third voyage, which are now
in the British Museum, where the animal is described and figured as
_Sciurus dissimilis_; it was obtained at Pulo Condore, an island 100
miles from Saigon, in 1780.

Sir T. Stamford Raffles was the next to describe it, which he did
under the generic name _Tupaia_--_tupai_ being a Malayan word
applied to various squirrel-like small animals--but he was somewhat
forestalled in the publication of his papers by MM. Diard and
Duvaucel. Dr. Anderson relates how Sir T. Raffles engaged the
services of these two naturalists to assist him in his researches,
on the understanding that the whole of the observations and
collections were to be the property of the East India Company; but
ultimately on this point there arose a disagreement between them,
and the paper that was first read before the Asiatic Society of Bengal
on the 10th of March, 1820, was drawn up by MM. Diard and Duvaucel,
though forwarded by Sir T. Raffles, whose own paper on the subject
was not read before the Linnean Society until the 5th of December
of that year, nor published till 1821; ther