10*2 
MAMMALIA. 
as long as the body, cylindrical, but pointed at the end. and 
covered with thick hair. 
Hydromys Coypus. — The Coypou. 
Plate XIX- fig. 7. 
Fur soft and downy, dark chestnut-brown on the back, red on 
the flanks, and light-brown on the belly. About two feet long ; 
tail eighteen inches ; hair rather hard. 
Genus 11— Mus. — Linnaeus. 
Generic Character —Incisors no canine teeth, grinders 5—5; 
total 16. The grinders are furnished with tubercles ; ears ob¬ 
long or round, nearly naked ; without cheek pouches ; fore feet 
with four toes, and a wart in place of a thumb, covered with an 
obtuse nail; hind feet with live toes ; nails long, sharp, and in¬ 
curved ; tail long, naked, and scaly; fur smooth, with a few 
scattered hairs extending beyond the rest, which in some spe¬ 
cies are spinous. 
Sub-Division I. — Spineless Hats of the Old Continent. 
Mus decumanus. — The Norway Rat. 
Plate XVIII. fig. 3. 
Fur gray-brown above, and grayish-white beneath; tail nearly 
the length of the body ; feet of a dirty skin-colour, but not 
webbed. Body nine inches long. Original habitation Persia, 
but has now spread all over the world. It is the common brown 
rat of Britain. 
Mus pumilio. — The Liniated Mouse. 
Plate XVIII. fig. 5. 
Fur ash-coloured brown above, lighter beneath, with four 
longitudinal black lines on the ridge of the back •, tail nearly 
naked, of middling length. Little more than two inches long 
from the nose to the tail. Inhabits the forests on the Slangen 
River, eastward of the Cape of Good Hope. 
