478 THE SCANDINAVIAN LEMMING CHAP. 
Of Fiber zibethicus, or vather a closely-allied form, F. osoyoos- 
ensis, from Lake Osoyoos near the Rockies, Mr. Lord writes! that 
it constructs for itself a house of bulrushes built up from the 
bottom in 3 or 4 feet of water. It is dome-shaped, and rises 
about a foot out of the water. “If adead or badly-wounded 
duck be left on the pool, it is at once seized on, towed into the 
house, and doomed.” Thus it appears that this Rodent, like so 
many others, is largely carnivorous. It has also been asserted 
that it eats fish. 
Neofiber is an allied genus, North American in range. The 
species, JV. al/eni, is compared, as regards outward form, with the 
Water-Vole, I. amphibius. It has, however, a shorter tail. 
Another very well-known member of this sub-family is the 
Lemming. The name, however, applies to two quite distinct 
genera. The genus Cuniculus, including the Banded Lemming, 
C. torquatus, 1s an inhabitant of North America, Siberia, and 
Greenland. The tail is short, its length being 12 mm. as against 
a body length of 101 mm. The feet are furred beneath, a not 
unusual state of affairs in Arctic mammals. The ears are very 
shght. The thumb is well developed, and bears a claw. 
In MJyodes, on the other hand, which is not so markedly 
an Arctic animal, though occurring in both Palaearctic and 
Nearctic regions, the ears are rather bigger, though still smaller 
than those of JMJicrotus. The under surfaces of the feet are 
similarly furred. The tail is also short. It is commonly said 
that the two genera are to be distinguished by the furred feet 
of Cunieulus, and by the absence of fur in the present genus. 
That, according to Tullberg, does not appear to be the case. The 
differences are thus so much reduced that it seems almost un- 
necessary to retain the two genera. The best known species of 
Myodes 1s of course the Scandinavian Lemming, JZ lemmus. 
This animal used to occur in this country in Pleistocene times (as 
did also C. torquatus), and recently Dr. Gadow has found remains 
with skins attached in caves in Portugal. It may still survive 
in the mountains of the Peninsula. 
The actual habitat of the Lemming in Scandinavia is the 
great tablelands, 5000 feet high in the centre. The migrations 
do not take place with regularity ; even twenty years may elapse 
before the ‘appearance in cultivated lands of those countless 
1 Proc. Zool. Soc. 1863, p. 95. 
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