238 Scientific Noiices-^Miscellaneous, [Sept. 



6. Ne70 Species of North American Quadruped. By Richard 

 Harlan, MD. Professor of Comparative Anatomy to the Phila- 

 delphia Museum, &c. 



Ai-vicola Ferrngiiteus, (nob.) 

 Vulgo. — White-bellied Cotton Rut. 



Char. Body large, ferruginous, brown above, whitish beneath; 

 fore legs very short and slender ; tail more than half the length 

 of the body. 



Dimemions, Total length from the snout to the root of the 

 tail seven inches ; length of the tail four inches. 



Description. Head long ; snout tapering ; whiskers white, 

 fine, and sparse, some long, others short; ears rather large, 

 broader than long, sparsely hairy within, naked without, an- 

 terior borders covered with long hairs — the teeth do not differ 

 essentially from those of the A. hortensis (nob.)*" the upper 

 molars are rather more compressed in their antero-posterior 

 diameter, and the curved lines of enamel on the crowns of the 

 inferior, assume, in some instances, the form of the Greek epsi- 

 lon. Body massive, tapering towards the root of the tail in the 

 same manner, though not to the same degree, as in the Norway 

 rat ; covered with fine long hairs of a dark plumbeous colour, 

 tipped with brown, and intermixed with black. Inferior parts 

 of the body plumbeous-white, the hairs being plumbeous, tipt 

 with white; tail slender, tapering, covered with hair, brown 

 above, whitish beneath ; feet grayish, white anteriorly, in form 

 and structure resembling those of the A. palustrisXnoh.),^ but in 

 proportion are exceedingly small and slender, being very little 

 larger than those of the common mouse — in an animal seven 

 inches in length of body, and nearly six inches in girth, the 

 fore legs measure less than one inch and a half to the extremity 

 of the nails ; the latter are black, compressed, sharp, and 

 hooked, as in the squirrel. 



Habit. According to Mr. J. J. Audubon (to whom I am 

 indebted for this specimen), this animal never burrows, but con- 

 ceals itself in hollow trees, generally forming a hole in the side, 

 somewhat after the manner of a woodpecker, where they retreat 

 in case of emergency. They inhabit the cotton fields exclu- 

 sively ,* carry their young on their back ; and, with their family 

 thus secured, climb dead trees as nimbly as the squirrel. 



Inhabit the borders of the Mississippi — the present specimen 

 from Beech woods near Natchez. 



On the whole, the present species bears a near resemblance 

 to the Arvicofa hortensis, but is sufficiently distinguished by the 

 extreme proportional minuteness of the fore legs and feet, by 

 the colour of the fur, as also in size and in the tapering form of 

 the body at the root of the tail, the manners of the animal, &c. 

 —(American Journal of Science.) 



• Vid, Fauna Americana, p. 138. t ^^^' V* ^S6. 



