Chlamyphorus truncatus. 161 



The lower portions of our animal, as well as that beneath the 

 scales, will bear a pretty close comparison with the same parts of 

 the mole, [Talpa Europcea, Lin. white variety.) The hair is finer 

 and longer than in the mole, and at a distance resembles long 

 staple cotton in appearance. The eye is small ; the neck, breast, 

 and shoulders, are very powerful ; the posterior extremities are 

 short and weak; the anterior, short and strong, and furnished 

 with large claws, as in the mole ; but in the form of the head, in 

 the structure and form of the claws, in the external ear, which is 

 apparent when the hair is separated, our animal is totally dissimi- 

 lar to the mole. The claws bear some analogy to the sloth, 

 \BradypuSy Lin.), but are articulated to the last phalanx, as in 

 the mole. Like the last named animal, the organs of generation 

 must have opened anterior to the pubis, and at a great distance 

 from the sacrum, viz. before the inferior margin of the truncated 

 portion of the shell, near the middle of the caudal vertebrae, 

 which, as I have remarked above, are continued, within the trun- 

 cated plate, to near the top of the back. Thus far, like the 

 mole, our animal is eminently constructed for subterranean pro- 

 gression ; and here^ in all probability, any strict analogy with that 

 animal ceases. 



In the examination of the skull, we are struck with its many 

 peculiarities, and great dissimilarity to that of the mole, to which 

 it is so nearly allied in its subterranean habits. The skull of the 

 latter animal is long and narrow, flattened vertically ; the jaws 

 are furnished with four large canine teeth, separated from each 

 other ; having between them six incisors above and eight belowj 

 seven molars on each side of the upper jaw, six on each side 

 below, the crowns of which are furnished with sharp points ; in 

 all of which our animal differs entirely. Like the mole, the 

 extremity of the snout is furnished with a sort of button, but of 

 much firmer consistence ; in the form of the snout, and posterior 

 part of the skull, as well as in the effaced appearance of the 

 sutures, some slight resemblance is visible. The palm of the 

 hand is directed rather inwards, in our new genus ; whereas in 

 the mole it is directed outwards, and the nails are destitute of 

 the cutting edge, so remarkable in the former. On comparing 



Vol. IL l 



