308 FIBER. 



Ondatra Lace*p., Tab. Mamm., 1799, p. 9. Less. Man., 1827, p. 

 286. (nee Link, 1795.) 



Moschomys Billberg, Syn. Faun. Scandinav., i, 1828, Mamm., Con- 

 spectus A. 



Size large; hind feet oblique to the leg; tail flattened sideways 

 for nearly its entire length and fringed with stiff hairs; ears very 

 small, deeply buried in fur; muzzle furry, except nasal pads, which 

 are naked. Palms and soles naked, fringed with hairs, five-tubercled ; 

 dentition and skull arvicoline; squamosals much expanded; parietals 

 reduced; interparietal nearly as long as broad; upper incisors almost 

 a circle in shape within and without the jaw; lower incisors enter jaw 

 to root of the condylar process; descending process of condyle ham- 

 ular and much twisted; palate terminates opposite middle of last 

 molar and has a median azygos protuberance; pterygoid fossa wide 

 and deep; nasals narrow posteriorly, widening rapidly anteriorly, 

 tumid, and terminating behind the incisors; interorbital constriction 

 excessive; processes of squamosal and maxilla have their ends in 

 contact; the jugal being merely a splint, not necessary for the con- 

 tinuity of the zygomatic arch. 



zibethicus pallidus (Fiber], Mearns, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 1890, 



p. 280. Elliot, Syn. N. Am. Mamm., 1901, p. 213. 

 PALE MUSK RAT. 



Type locality. Fort Verde, Yavapai County, Arizona. 



Geogr. Distr. Lower California? and State of Sonora? north, 

 probably, to Montana. 



Genl. Char. Size small, two-thirds that of the typical form. Skull 

 like that of the eastern muskrat, but smaller. 



Color. Rusty brown, paler beneath; scattered hairs on tail liver 

 brown. 



Measurements. Total length, 500; tail vertebrae, 203; hind foot, 

 69. Skull: occipito-nasal length, 56; Hensel, 52; zygomatic width, 

 37; interorbital constriction, 6; length of nasals, 19; palatal length, 

 31 ; length of upper molar series, 15 ; length of mandible, 37. 



The Gophers, or Pouched Rats, as the mole-like creatures which 

 compose the next family are called, are stout, shapeless animals, 

 whose powerful shoulders and fore legs with enormous claws on the 

 front toes, suitable for digging, blunt head, minute eyes and small 

 ears, admirably fit them for a life under ground. In the localities 

 in which they abound their long tunnels ramify the soil in all direc- 

 tions and are indicated by the earth raised above the surrounding 



