MURIDA—SIGMODONTES—HESPEROMYS PALUSTRIS. 115 
quite pure; generally, it is obscured by the ashy of the roots of the hairs 
showing through, and it often has a faint brownish wash, like a very weak 
dilution of the color of the sides. The ears have no distinctive coloration. 
The eye is usually surrounded by a slight blackish area, which sometimes, as 
in No. 1305, extends as a frenum to the muzzle, there meeting its fellow. The 
moderately, abundant whiskers, of medium length, are some of them black, 
others colorless. 
The palms and soles are both perfectly naked; on top, these members 
are clothed {o the nails with short close-pressed hairs of satiny texture and 
luster, sometimes pure glossy-white, at others soiled; this furring is generally 
dense, but sometimes so scanty that the flesh-color of the skin shows through 
Sometimes the palms and soles are flesh-colored, sometimes they are black 
ish. The soles are 6-tuberculate: (1) a long linear tubercle along the inner 
side, midway between toe and heel; (2) a very minute one just outside the 
anterior end of the last; (3, 4) one at base of both inner and outer toe; and 
(5, 6) two at bases of the three central toes. Where non-tuberculate, most 
of the sole is granular-reticulate ; all the toes are annular-scaled transversely 
underneath, with a terminal node. The 2d, 3d, and 4th toes are very long, 
and almost of equal length; the 5th reaches nearly to the middle of the 4th; 
the 1st scarcely beyond the base of the 2d. The claws are all short, thick, 
little curved, and not very sharp; the calcaneal tuberosity is prominent ; 
traces of the several metatarsals are evident. The largeness of the foot itself 
is in striking contrast with the shortness of the hind leg. There are five tuber- 
cles on the palms, almost entirely occupying the surface: two very large ones 
posteriorly, subequal in size and side by side, in fact almost coalescing; the 
inner of these bears the little nodule, capped by a bit of horn that represents 
the pollex. There is another smaller tubercle at the base of the 2d and 5th 
fingers respectively ; and a fifth at the conjoined base of the 3d and 4th fin- 
gers. The 3d finger is longest, the 4th but little shorter; the 2d and 5th 
successively diminish rapidly. 
Unlike the feet, the ears are not densely and softly pilous as in other 
Hesperomys, but are: hirsute—almost strigous—with rather long and stiffish 
straight hairs, that form a slight fringe. A part of these, nearest the antitra- 
gus, on the concavity of the auricle, are longer than the rest, and form the 
tuft already mentioned. The back of the ear is pretty evenly furred, though 
rather more scantily toward its base than around the edge. The ears project 
a little beyond the general fur. 
