490 SPECIES OF CAPROMYS CHAP. 
suggests a Water-Rat of large size (it has been exhibited in shows 
as a phenomenal product of London sewers !); the tail is nearly 
as long as the body. The ears are small. The limbs are short. 
The tail is naked. The hind-feet are webbed, but not so much 
so as in Hydromys. A-small thumb is present. The animal has 
thirteen pairs of ribs; the molars are four in each jaw. The large 
intestine is more than three times the length of the small, and 
the caecum is, as in the last genus, relatively short. 
Capromys is a genus’ which is remarkable on account of its 
restricted distribution. It is found only in the islands of Cuba 
and Jamaica. There are four species, of which C. melanurus is a 
dark brown-coloured animal with a blacker tail, nearly as large 
as a Rabbit. The native name of this Rodent is “hutia.” It 1s 
also remarkable for having a stomach more complicated than is 
the rule among the mammals of this group. The organ is 
divided by two constrictions into three compartments. In 
C. pilorides the liver is occasionally divided up in an extra- 
ordinary fashion into small lobules. Capromys has the large 
number of sixteen dorsal vertebrae. 
Fam. 2. Ctenodactylidae.--—For these African genera it seems 
admissible to form a distinct family, though Thomas, and Flower 
and Lydekker, only allow to the genera Ctenodactylus, Pectinator, 
and Massoutiera sub-family rank. On the other hand, Tullberg 
removed these genera entirely from the Hystricomorph section 
and placed them as a section of the sub-tribe Myomorphi of the 
tribe Sciurognathi. It was chiefly the form of the mandible 
which led to this placing, for in these Rodents, as in all Squirrel- 
and Rat-like Rodents, and unlike what is found in the Hystrici- 
form genera, the angular process of the mandible is not bent 
sideways. 
The genus Cfenodactylus derives its name from the peculiar 
strong bristles which form a comb-like structure upon the hind- 
feet and hide the claws; these are stated to be for the purpose 
of dressing the,fur. The Gundi of North Africa, C. gundi, has a 
length of 190 mm., with a short tail of 17 mm. The ears are 
only moderate in size. The dental formula of the molars is 4. 
The incisors are white. The feet have four digits, and the hind- 
limbs are the longer. The large intestine is distinctly longer 
than the small intestine. 
1 See Dobson, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1884, p. 233. 
