308 FIBER. 
Ondatra Lacép., Tab. Mamm., 1799, p. 9. Less. Man., 1827, p. 
286. (nec Link, 1795.) 
Moschomys Billberg, Syn. Faun. Scandinav., 1, 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., 1go1, 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 vertebra, 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 
