460 



RODENTIA 



molars very small, with the enamel -folds almost absent. Some 

 three Ethiopian species. 



Claviglis. 1 — Represented by one West African species, said to be 

 distinguished from all other forms by the shorter tail, which is 

 more distinctly pencilled. The right to generic distinction is, how- 

 ever, very problematical. 



Muscardinus. 2 — Includes the Common Dormouse (31. avettamrius) 

 of Europe, distinguished by the cylindrical bushy tail, and thickened 

 glandular walls of the cardiac extremity of the oesophagus ; the 

 molars have flat crowns, with complex enamel-folds. 



Fossil Dormice. — Using the generic term Myoxus in a more 

 extended sense than the above, it has existed in Europe from the 

 date of the Upper Eocene. A species nearly as large as a Guinea- 

 Pig, with very complex molars, is common in the Pleistocene of 

 Malta. 



Family Lophiomyid.e. 

 The genus Lophiomys, 3 represented only by L. imhausi (Fig. 



mm® 



PlG. ^04. — Lophiomys imhausi. From Milne-Edwards. 



204) of North-East Africa, differs from the typical Muridce in 

 having the temporal fossae roofed over by a thin plate of bone, 

 rudimentary clavicles, and an opposable hallux. On these grounds 

 it has been made the type of a famil} r , but since all the features 

 are Murine — the dentition being that of a typical Cricetine — it 



1 .Tentink, Notes Lajd. Mus. vol. x. p. 41 (1SSS). 



2 Kaup, Entwickl. Ewrop. ThierwcJt, p. 139 (1829). 



'■'■ A. Milne-Edwards, L'lnstltut. vol. xxxv. p. 46 (1867). 



