534 MONOGRAPHS OF NORTH AMERICAN RODENTIA. 
half the total length of the body. There are other long, slender, bristly hairs 
in weak clumps about the eyes and ears, and a bunch of short antrorse bris- 
tles springs from the chin. The eyes are large and prominent, in life remark- 
ably soft and expressive, in striking contrast to the small and inconspicuous 
eyes of the Geomyide; in consequence of the production of the muzzle, they 
are situate much nearer to the ears than to the nose, and rather above a line 
connecting the two. The ears, similarly, are large and “leafy”, appearing 
the more prominent because they rest upon the most protuberant part of the 
skull. When pressed out flat, the auricle is nearly orbicular. In the natural 
state, the fore border is largely folded over, the duplication extending from 
the extreme root to the highest point of the ear, and representing about one- 
. third of the width of the ear. » This fold causes a slight pointing of the ear. 
The posterior border is more rounded than the anterior; and within its base 
is developed a large, conspicuous, obtusely-angular antitragus, so broad that 
its inner edge is extensively overlapped by the fold of the anterior border of 
the auricle; a fringe of long hairs springing from the base of the anterior 
fold is directed backward over the antitragus; otherwise the auricle is closely 
and completely pilous on both sides, the hairy clothing of the open part of 
the concavity being heavier than that on the back of the ear. 
The fore limbs are shortened, in sacrifice of locomotive ability to increase 
of prehensile faculty. The arm and fore arm are stout; the latter tapers 
very abruptly and contracts to a delicate wrist and very small hand. There 
are four perfect digits, and a rudimentary thumb; the longer digits rather 
exceed, even excluding their claws, the length of the hahd proper (meta- 
carpus); the 3d and 4th are approximately equal in length and longest; the 
2d and 5th are successively reduced a little in length; the 1st is a mere 
stump; its claw is a knob ; the other claws are well formed, slender, com- 
pressed, acute, little curved, nearly as long as their respective digits. The 
back of the whole hand is pilous, and longer hairs fringe the sides of the 
digits; but the palm is naked, minutely tubercular throughout, these number- 
less little elevations showing no recognizable special distribution. ‘The hand 
ends behind with an enormous smooth bulb, a little to the inner side, and 
with a smaller external bulb, likewise smooth, separated from the main one 
by a narrow hairy interval. 
The hinder limbs offer the opposite degree of development. While the 
fore, from the elbow outward, is only a fourth of the total length the corre- 
