140 FAUNA AMERICANA. 



Feet small, brown above ; the number of toes 

 and nails, their form and situation, do not mate- 

 rially difler from the same part« in the preceding 

 species. 



Habit. Mr. Ord discovered these animals in 

 Florida in the year 1817 or 1818, and presented 

 specimens to the Philadelphia Museum, where 

 they have remained ever since, undescribed. He 

 states that they frequent the ruined gardens of 

 deserted plantations; feed on seeds, grain, &c. ; 

 they are very abundant also on the borders of 

 marshes, and constitute the principal food of the 

 Marsh-Hawk, as we are informed by Mr. T. Peale. 



jVoTE. — The molar teeth of this species present 

 some differences from those of the common Jrvico- 

 /«,and resemble somewhat those of the genus Lein- 

 mus ; but the following, among other characters of 

 this latter genus, " ears very short,'''' and " tail very 

 short,'"' &c. will not apply to the present species ; 

 in all other respects it resembles the Arvicola 

 much more closely than any other genus ; it must 

 consequently be referred to the former, or esta- 

 blish a new genus; the latter alternative would be 

 as unwarrantable as to make distinct genera of the 

 two existing species of Elephants.* 



* Some weeks after the above description had been drawn up, 

 and read before the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, 

 Messrs. Say and Ord thought it necessary to describe the same 

 animal, and to construct from it a new genus, which they name 

 •' Sigmodon.^'' For this distinction they have no other founda- 



