RODENTIA MURINAE NEOTOMA FUSCIPES. 



49 



List of specimens. 



NEOTOMA FUSCIPES, Cooper, Mss. 



SP. CH. Larger than the house rat (Mas decumanus.) Tail nearly as long as the head and body, compressed at (ip. 

 Color above, yellowish rusty brown, lined with black. Beneath, soiled white. Hands and toes of hind feet white ; the 

 upper part of metatarsus dusky. Tail uniformly dusky all round. 



(2619. $ ) This animal is about the size of the largest Norway rats, to which, in many respects, 

 it bears a not distant resemblance. In the alcoholic specimen, however, the head appears 

 narrower. The ears are very large and wide, rather longer than broad ; their longest diameter 

 in the line of the axis of the head ; both surfaces coated with short hairs, except around the 

 meatus. The nose is covered with hair to the end ; the septum is naked, with a groove which 

 extends to the incisors, and is naked at its bottom. The upper lip is deeply cleft to the base of 

 the incisors, the cleft continued to the furrow of the nose, as described. The whiskers are very 

 long, extending far behind the occiput, and at least as far as the axillae. The eyes are small, 

 situated about midway between the nose and the meatus ; its distance from the base of the ear 

 is about the length of the ear itself. 



The feet are rather small, and the fingers and toes appear short and thickened. The thumb is a 

 thickened tubercle, armed with a small flat nail, which does not reach to the end of the tubercle, and 

 bears a striking resemblance to that of the human hand. The third finger is longest ; the fourth 

 but very little shorter; the second is a little shorter; the fifth claw reaches to the base of the adjacent 

 fourth claw. The palms are naked, with five very large and angular tubercles almost covering the 

 surface : one at the bases of the second and fifth fingers, respectively, one at the conjoint base of the 

 third and fourth, and two large ones on the posterior part of the palm. The hind feet are short, 

 (the fore ones about two-thirds their size.) The toes are short, occupying about one-third the 

 whole length of the hind foot ; their proportions are much as in the fore feet, the first one, how 

 ever, less rudimentary, of course, its claw reaching to the penultimate articulation of the second 

 toe. The soles are naked under the entire metatarsus ; the tarsal portion is hairy, although a 

 strip of naked skin penetrates it a short distance from near the outer edge of the rnetatarsal 

 portion of the sole, and, in fact, appear, almost to be continued to the heel on account of the 

 shortness of the hair. There are six very large tubercles on the sole ; one under the posterior 

 third of the foot, the other five arranged almost precisely as in the fore foot. The tail is thick, 

 cylindrical, and tapering to a rather obtuse tip ; it is longer than the body, without the head ; 

 nearly equal to the entire length of head and body ; it is covered with short hairs, usually more 

 or less concealing the annuli, which are much shorter than in the Norway rat. In the dried 

 specimens the tail becomes much compressed towards the end, like that of the muskrat. 



