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MR. E. T. BENNETT ON THE GENUS OCTODON. 83 
Academy on the subject of certain of the animals collected by him during his travels in 
South America. Regarding it as constituting the type of a new genus, but not aware 
that it had previously been characterized elsewhere, he proposed for it the name of 
Dendrobius: and, as he considered the animal identical with the Degus of Molina, an 
obscure species (like many others noticed by that author), he gave it the appellation of 
Dendr. Degus: referring to it, as synonymous, the Sciwrus Degus, Gmel. et Auct.; the 
Myoxus Getulinus, Poepp. ; and the Tamias Degus of several travellers. If, however, 
Molina’s description of the Degus be correct, | cannot regard his animal as identical 
with the one under consideration: and even assuming that the name used by that 
writer is applied (as would seem from Dr. Meyen’s statement to be the case) to Mr. 
Cuming’s species, it is by no means improbable that it may have rather a generic than 
a specific value, and that it may not be limited to one animal, but include several allied 
to each other in outward form. Dr. Meyen briefly adverts to the habits of the species, 
but his remarks add little to the information furnished by Mr. Cuming and by Captain 
King. The position assigned by him to the genus,—which he places among the 
Squirrels, in immediate apposition with Myoxus,—appears to me to be altogether forced, 
the only important point in which they agree being their arboreal habits: the form of 
the molar teeth as regards their lamination is altogether dissimilar ; while the absence 
of fangs to those teeth in the one and their presence in the others indicate a distinction 
of such high value as to place them in different tribes of the order to which they belong, 
the one ranking among the Herbivorous and the others being referrible to the Omnivo- 
rous Rodentia. 
Genus Crenomys, Blainv. 
Dentes primores +, acutati, anticé leves: molares utrinque utrinsecus +, postremo sub- 
obsoleto, ceteris similibus, simpliciusculis, veluti e lamina simplici subarcuata 
constantibus, in maxillé superiore externé et posticé, in inferiore interné et anticé, 
laté exsculpta. 
Artus subequales, omnes pentadactyli, digitis liberis ; unguibus falcularibus, ungulifor- 
mibus, subelongatis. 
Cauda breviuscula, subannulata, pilosa. 
Americe Australis incole, fodientes. 
Crenomys Brasiiensis, Blainv. 
Cten. supra nitidée rufus, subtus rufescenti-albidus ; caudd nigrescenti-brunned. (fide Blainv.) 
Orycteromys sive Ctenomys Brasiliensis, Blainv., in Bull. Soc. Philom., Avr. 1826, 
p. 62.—Icon. Ibid. 
Hab. in Brasilia, in provincia Minas Geraes. 
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