ARVICOLA 389 



Arvicoh, 



Mimomys bactonensis. amphibius. 



1. Zygomatic breadth. 



2. Width of palate across front 



ends of m' '. 



3. Maxillarj' cheek-teeth (alveolar). 



4. Length of mandible. 



5. Mandibular molars (alveolar), 

 (i. Length of humerus. 



7. ,, femur. 



8. Least width of femoral shaft. 



9. Length of tibia. 



10. ,, calcaneum. 



11. ,, astragalus. 



12. Breadth of astragalus (posterior) 



13. Length of metatarsal IV. 



Remarks. — Some remarks upon the meaning of this species 

 and the age of the deposit in which its remains occur are given 

 after the description of A. greenii below. But in this place I 

 think something should be said about the Green Collection. The 

 Rev. C. Green was an enthusiastic collector who exercised a 

 most mischievous ingenuity in " restoring " his fossils. He often 

 restored the palate of a vole with the teeth of three or four 

 individuals; built up a " skull " or so with fish bones and other 

 odds and ends from the Bacton deposit; and arranged "skele- 

 tons " of rodents made up of the bones of mammals, amphibia 

 and fishes upon slabs of clay or plaster, apparently with a 

 desire to imitate the gypsum blocks of Cuvier, which were then 

 attracting so much attention. When the matrix is plaster, 

 the character of the "restoration" is at once apparent; but 

 when it is clay the " skeletons " are apt to deceive. One very 

 choice vole skeleton embedded in clay looks quite genuine until 

 closely examined ; its skull is then seen to consist of fragmentary 

 lower jaws most cleverly worked in, and the other parts are 

 equally fraudulent. These restorations for the most part bear 

 late numbers in Green's Catalogue. 



The specimen I have described above is labelled " Skeleton 

 of an Extinct Species of Rat Freshwater Ost-end, Bacton, No. 

 23," and after a very close examination I have come to the con- 

 clusion that this is genuine and trustworthy. The bones are 

 embedded in a slab of clay and lie nearly in their natural positions. 

 None is duplicated, and no other genera or species are represented 

 on the slab ; I do not think Green can have made more than a slight 

 adjustment. The early catalogue number suggests that it was 

 the discovery of this specimen that awakened Green's interest 

 in " synthetic palaeontology," and it probably served as a pattern 

 for many of his later studies. 



2. t Arvicola greenii sp. n. 



The synonymy given under A. bactonensis applies equally to 

 this species. 



