116 



MAMMALIA. 



trenchant, rectilinear, and not pointed : their limbs are very short ; all their feet have five short toes, 

 with flat and slender nails ; their tail is short or wanting, and there is no external ear. They live 

 under ground like the Moles, throw up the earth in the same manner, although provided with very 

 inferior instruments for the purpose, and subsist entirely on roots. 



The Blind Mole-rat, Zemny, or Stepitz (Mtts typhlus, Pallas.)— A singular animal, which, from its large head, 

 angular at the sides, its short legs, the total absence of a tail or of any apparent eye, has a most shapeless appear- 

 ance. The eye is not visible externally, and we merely find beneath the skin a small black globule, which appears 

 to be organized like an eye, but which cannot serve for the purpose of vision, since the skin passes over it without 

 opening, or even becoming thinner, and being as much covered with hair as on any other part. It exceeds our Rat 

 in size, and has smooth ash-coloured fur, verging on red. Olivier supposed that this animal was alluded to by the 

 ancients, when they spoke of the Mole as being totally blind. 



The islands in the Straits of Sunda produce a Mole-rat as large as a Rabbit, of a deep grey colour, with a white 

 longitudinal stripe upon the head (Spalax javanicus, Auct.) 



[The Canets (Rhizomys, Gray ; Nyctocleptes, Tem.) — 



Have been approximated to the Mole-rats ; but have small open eyes, and conspicuous naked ears : 

 their head is large, the body round and massive ; limbs short, with five toes to each foot, and thick 

 and naked tail of mean length. There are three rooted molars on each side of both jaws, more com- 

 plicated than in Spalas. 



Two species are described, Mus sumatrensis, Raffles, which feeds chiefly on the roots of the bamboo, and 

 R. tinicus, Gray.] 



From the Mole-rats themselves should have been separated — 



The Bathyergues {Bathyergm*, 111. ; Orycteropus, F. Cuv.), — 



Which, with the general form, the feet, and truncated incisors of the preceding, combine four molars 

 to each jaw : their eyes, though small, are distinctly perceptible ; and they have a short tail. 



The Shore Bathyergue (Mtu maritimut, Gra.). — Nearly the size of a Rabbit, with grooved upper incisors, ar.d 

 whitish-grey fur. Also the Cape Bathyergue (M. capensis, Gm.), scarcely as large as a Guinea-pig, brown, with 

 a spot around the eye, another round the ear, and a third on the vertex, together with the end of the muztle, 

 white. The incisors of this species are smooth. There is a third, also, with smooth incisors like the last, grey, 

 and hardly equal in size to a Rat (B. ho(tentotus). 



We should place near the Mole-rat and Bathyergues 



The Pseudostomes (Geomys, Rafinesque ; Pseudostoma, Say ; Ascomys, Licht. ; [Saccophorus, Kuhl]), — 



Which have likewise four molars above and below, prismatically compressed : the first double, the 

 three others simple ; and the upper incisors of which are furrowed with a double groove in front. 

 Their three anterior middle nails, the medial more especially, are very long, crooked, and trenchant. 

 They are low on the legs, and have very deep cheek-pouches, wliich open externally, enlarging the 

 sides of the head and neck in a singular manner. 



Only one species is known (Mus bursarius, Shaw), of the size of a Rat, with reddish-grey fur ; the tail naked, 

 and shorter by haif than the body. It inhabits deep burrows, in the interior of North America. The figure of 

 this animal in the Lininean Transactions resembles nothing in nature, having the cheek-pouches turned 

 inside out. 



The Gauffres (Diplostoma, Rafin.) — 



Scarcely differ from the preceding, except in the total absence of a tail. 



They are from North America. The species before us is reddish, and ten inches in length. [Eight or ten 

 species pertaining to this and the preceding subdivision are now known, one or more inhabiting Europe. 



The Saccomyds {Saccomys, F. Cuv.) — 



Have similar cheek-pouches, and four rooted molars on each side of both jaws, successively lessening. 

 They have five toes on each foot, the anterior thumbs very small ; tail long and naked. 



The only species described {S. xanlhophilus) inhabits North America, and is of the size and has much the aspect 

 of a Mouse. Its cheek-pouches were distended with the flowers of Securidaca volubilis, with some entire seeds, 

 apparently of Convolvulacece. 



* Tins name is now confined to certain species which have only three molars. Orycteropus, however, is also applied to a grnus of Edentata. 

 —Ed. 



