120 MAMMALIA. 



the preceding; tail three-fourths as long as the body. It lives in 

 troops in the prairies of the temperate regions of North America. 



There is one found in the Indian Archipelago, that is nearly the 

 size of a cat ; the male is of a fine lively maronne above, and red 

 underneath ; the female brown above, and whitish underneath. It 

 is the 



Sc. petaurista, L. ; Buff. Supp. III. xxi, and VII. Ixvii. (The 

 Taguan). The same Archipelago produces another small one, the 



Sc. sagitta, L. A deep brown above; white beneath; distin- 

 guished from other species, the small ones especially, by its mem- 

 brane, which, as in the Taguan, forms an extremely acute projecting 

 angle behind the tarsus. 

 M. Geoffroy has very properly separated from this genus the 



CiiEiROMYS, Cuv.* 



Or the Aye-Ayes, whose inferior incisors, much more compressed, and, 

 in an especial manner, more extended from front to back, resemble plough- 

 shares. Each foot has five toes, of which four of the anterior are exces- 

 sively elongated, the medius being more slender than the others ; in the 

 hind feet the thumb is opposable to the other toes ; so that they are in 

 this respect among the Rodentia, what the Opossums are among the Car- 

 naria. The structure of their head is otherwise very different from that 

 of the other Rodentia, and is related to the Quodrumana in more points 

 than one. 



There is only one species of the Aye-Aye known. It was disco- 

 vered at Madagascar by Sonnerat. It is the Cheir. Madagascarien- 

 sis; Sc. Madagascar., Gm. ; Buff. Supp. VII. Ixviii. (The Aye- 

 Aye). Size of a hare, of a brown colour, mixed with yellow; tail 

 long and thick, with stout black bristles ; ears large and naked. It 

 is a nocturnal animal, to which motion seems painful; it burrows 

 under ground, and uses its slender toe to convey food to its mouth. 

 Linnseas and Pallas united in one single group, under the name of 



Mus. Lin. 



AH the Rodentia furnished with clavicles, which they could not distin- 

 guish by some very sensible external character, such as the tail of the 

 squirrel or that of the beaver, from which resulted the utter impossibility 

 of assigning to them any common character; the greater number had 

 merely pointed lower incisors, but even this was subject to exceptions. 



Gmelin has already separated from them the marmots, dormice, and the 

 jerboas; but we carry their subdivision much further, from considerations 

 founded on the form of their grinders. 



Arctom-ys,-}- Gm. 

 The Marmots, it is true, have the inferior incisors pointed like those of 

 the greater number of animals comprehended in the great genus Mus ; 



* Cheiromys, a rat with hands, -f- Arclomys, Bear Rat. 



