OBSERVATIONS ON THE RODENTIA. 



185 



(a) Skull of Oraphiurus Capensis, seen from above, 

 ramus of lower jaw of Myoxus avellanarius, (inner side, 

 beneath. 



(ft) the same, seen laterally. (c) 

 {d) skull of the same seen from 



Skull. — Without any post-orbital process to the temporal 

 bone ; zygomatic process of maxillary bone consisting of a 

 broad thin plate, the base of which occupies the whole space 

 between the plane of the palate and that of the upper sur- 

 face of the skull : this plate perforated by a tolerably large 

 ant-orbital foramen. Palatine portions of intermaxillary, 

 maxillary, and palate bones (in Myoxus avellanarius 1 ) on the 

 same plane. Incisive foramina long and narrow, situated 

 partially in the intermaxillary and partially in the maxillary 

 bones; palatine process of the maxillary terminating opposite 

 the penultimate molar, and followed by a narrow palatine pro- 

 cess of the palate bone. In the palato-maxillary suture are 

 two large foramina, and there are two large' posterior palatal 

 foramina, one on each side, near the inner margin of the last 

 molar. Glenoid cavity somewhat contracted. 



Lower jaw with the descending ramus forming a quadrate 

 process, which is sometimes perforated. The lower posterior 

 angle of this process is incurved, and either angular or round- 

 ed and the upper posterior angle is acute and twisted outwards. 



The drawings of the skulls of Myoxus glis, and Graphiu- 

 rus Capensis, which illustrate M. F. Cuvier's paper in the 

 ' Nouvelles Ajmales du Mus.' vol. i., together with some skulls 



1 I have not had an opportunity of examining the palate in the skulls of 

 any other species of this family. 



