Maruinalia. lol 



Genus Ctenodactylus. Gray. 



Incisorsl, canines 2 o, molars 33, — IG. Upper jaw — f)icisors 

 stout, square, and truncated ; molars oblong, fiat, and plain, on 

 the inside, with one indenta/ion on the outer side. Lower jaw — 

 Incisors slender and pointed; molars someivhat diamond or 

 lozenrje-shaped, with one indentation between each of the four 

 angles, but more particularly of the first and second. All the 

 feet with four toes and small curved tiails, the two innermost 

 toes of the hinder feet have each a double small deeply pectinated 

 bony plate on its inner side. Tail very short. 



Ctenodactylus typicus, (Masson's Comb-Rat.) Fiw soft and 

 silky ; the upper parts pale fulvous brown ; the hair very thin, 

 pale lead-coloured at the base, pale fulvous at the end, with 

 very short blackish tips, especially on the head ; the cliin, 

 throat, inner sides of limbs, and beneath, whitish, with the 

 same lead-coloured base to the hairs. The head rather small, 

 and densely hairy ; muzzle very small and black ; mouth rather 

 small ; the cutting teeth exposed, rounded, smooth, and white ; 

 whiskers twice as long as the head, rijid and black ; two or 

 three long slender bristles over the eyebroAvs ; eyes moderate, 

 ratlier nearer the ears than the end of the nose ; ears rounded, 

 externally covered with dense short fur like the body, internally 

 iiakedish, black, and with a distinct helix. The limbs short; 

 feci; covered with short rather depiessed hair ; fore feet short ; 

 toes free, the two middle ones nearly equal, the inner rather 

 shorter, and the outermost shortest of all ; the claws short, 

 subequal, incurved, black, and not so long as the hinder ones; 

 the hinder feet large with naked soles ; toes free, the three 

 inner equal, the outer rather the shortest. Tail cylindrical, 

 ending in a parcel of ri^id black-tipped hairs. Length from 

 nose to base of tail nine inches ; length of tail one inch. 



Inhabits Barbary. — South Africa. ? 



Mus Gundi, Rothman. Arctomys Gundi, Gm. Syst. Nat. 

 vol.i. p. 163, Gundi Marmot, Penn. Zool. vol. ii. p. 137. 

 Ctenodactylus Massonii, Gray, Spicilegia Zoologica, p. 11, 



Obs. Although Mr. Gray remarks, that a specimen of this animal is 

 marked in tlie IJritish Museum as from the Cape ol Good Hope, vet I am 

 inclined to believe it does not occur here. The description given by 

 him of the peculiar digital appendages, which occur on tlie hinder feet, 

 and which have beeu entered amongst tlie generic characters, does not 

 exactly correspond with that of tlie accurate observer and describer of 

 animal structuies, Mr. Yarrell, it may be necessary to record the differ- 

 ences, and that cannot be better done than in the words of liie latter, as 

 we find tht-m in the Proceedings of the Committee of Science and Cor- 

 respondence of the Zoological Society of London, part i, p. 49. Speaking 

 of the Ctenodactylus Massonii, Mr. Yarrell observes, — " The gei.eral ex- 

 ternal resemblance lo tlie well-known Lemmings has been noticed, but 



