

4QO 'SPECIES OF CAPROMYS -CHAP. 



suggests a Water-Eat of large size (it has been exhibited in shows 

 as a phenomenal product of London sewers !) ; the tail is nearly 

 as long as the body. The ears are small. The limbs are short. 

 The tail is naked. The hind-feet are webbed, but not so much 

 so as in Hydromys. A small thumb is present. The animal has 

 thirteen pairs of ribs ; the molars are four in each jaw. The large 

 intestine is more than three times the length of the small, and 

 the caecum is, as in the last genus, relatively short. 



Gapromys is a genus l which is remarkable on account of its 

 restricted distribution. It is found only in the islands of Cuba 

 and Jamaica. There are four species, of which C. melanurus is a 

 dark brown-coloured animal with a blacker tail, nearly as large 

 as a Rabbit. The native name of this Rodent is " hutia" It is 

 also remarkable for having a stomach more complicated than is 

 the rule among the mammals of this group. The organ is 

 divided by two constrictions into three compartments. In 

 C. pilorides the liver is occasionally divided up in an extra- 

 ordinary fashion into small lobules. Capromys has the large 

 number of sixteen dorsal vertebrae. 



Fam. 2. Ctenodactylidae. For these African genera it seems 

 admissible to form a distinct family, though Thomas, and Flower 

 and Lydekker, only allow to the genera Ctenodactylus, Pectinator, 

 and Massoutiera sub-family rank. On the other hand, Tullberg 

 removed these genera entirely from the Hystricornorph section 

 and placed them as a section of the sub-tribe Myomorphi of the 

 tribe Sciurognathi. It was chiefly the form of the mandible 

 which led to this placing, for in these Rodents, as in all Squirrel- 

 and Rat-like Rodents, and unlike what is found in the Hystrici- 

 form genera, the angular process of the mandible is not bent 

 sideways. 



The genus Ctenodactylus derives its name from the peculiar 

 strong bristles which form a comb-like structure upon the hind- 

 feet and hide the claws ; these are stated to be for the purpose 

 of dressing the fur. The Gundi of North Africa, C. gundi, has a 

 length of 190 mm., with a short tail of 17 mm. The ears are 

 only moderate in size. The dental formula of the molars is f . 

 The incisors are white. The feet have four digits, and the hind- 

 lirnbs are the longer. The large intestine is distinctly longer 

 than the small intestine. 



1 See Dobson, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1884, p. 233. 



