MYOXIDsE 



459 



Section MYOMORPHA. 



Skull (Fig. 203), with slender zygomatic arch, in which the 

 jugal seldom extends 

 far forwards, being 

 usually supported by 

 the long zygomatic 

 process of the maxilla ; 

 no postorbital process ; 

 infraorbital vacuity 

 variable ; angle of 

 mandible, except in 

 the Bathyerginop, rising 

 from the inferior sur- 

 face of the incisive 

 alveolus. Clavicles 

 well developed, except 

 in Lophiomys. Tibia 

 and fibula united. 



FIG. 203. Side view of skull of Fiber zibethicus, natural size. 



Family MYOXID/E. 



Small arboreal forms, with long hairy tails, large eyes and ears, 

 and short fore limbs. No caecum in the intestine. Skull with 

 narrow frontals, a high and narrow infraorbital vacuity of moderate 

 size, and a long and slender coronoid process to the mandible. 

 Premolars i ; molars rooted, with transverse enamel-folds. 



The Dormice form a natural family allied to the Squirrels in 

 form and habits, and confined to the Palaearctic and Ethiopian 

 regions. The absence of the caecum distinguishes them from all 

 other members of the order. They are usually divided into the 

 following five genera, but some of these are of very doubtful value, 

 and it might be preferable to retain Muscardinus and include all 

 the others in Myoxus. 1 



Myoxus. 2 Represented by the European M. glis, and charac- 

 terised by the bushy distichous tail, simple stomach, and the large 

 size and complex enamel-folds of the molars, which have flat crowns. 



Eliomys? Tail tufted and distichous ; stomach simple ; and 

 the molars small, with concave crowns and indistinct enamel-folds. 

 Some seven species, Ethiopian and Palaearctic. 



Gmphiurus. 4 Tail short, cylindrical, and tufted at the end ; 



1 For a monograph of the Myoxidce, see C. L. Reuvens, Die Myoxidcc, etc., 

 4to, Leyden, 1890. 2 Schreber, Saugethiere, vol. iv. p. 824 (1792). 



3 Wagner, Abh. baier. Akad. vol. iii. p. 179 (1843). 



4 F. Cuvier, Mammiferes, 60me livr. (1845). 



