THE SHORT-TAILED UTIA. 471 



and with myself, was the first to see that the Cony of 

 Jamaica had no close affinity with the Caviform 

 Rodentia, but was generically identical with the 

 Capromys of Cuba. The details of structure by 

 which he convincingly proves these facts, want of 

 space compels me to omit ; but his polite transmission 

 to me of specimens in skin and in spirit, has enabled 

 me to confirm his conclusions, and to give to the 

 Indian Cony the specific name and the distinctive 

 characters contained in the note below.* 



From the letters of this gentleman, however, I 

 gladly make the following extracts, comprising many 

 particulars of the economy and structure of this 

 animal : — 



* The Short-tailed Utia. (Capromi/s bracJij/urus, Hill.) Tall very 

 short, about one-eighth of the total length. Fur dense and harsh, 

 generally from | to 1 inch in length, with a few longer hairs inter- 

 mixed, but all of one kind : each hair is black, with a ring of bright 

 bay or golden brown near the tip, imparting a brindled appearance 

 to the fur, like that of a dark specimen of the Brown Rat. On the 

 throat, breast, and belly the fur is yellowish, becoming white along 

 the mesial line. The feet are clothed with blackish hair, short and 

 stiff; the soles are black, roughened with rasp-like warts. The thumb 

 of the fore-paws is a rudimentary tubercle, but armed with a distinct 

 blunt nail. The great toe of the hind feet set far back, separable, and 

 thumb-like. Ears blackish grey, short, and fleshy. Muffle- (or broad 

 flat termination of the snout) blackish, clothed with a glistening pile 

 of very short down, the extreme margins of the nostrils alone being 

 naked. Moustaches long. Incisors white. Molars with two deep 

 oblique folds externally and one internally. Tail stiff, taper, with 

 rounded point ; scaly, with thick short bristly hair, which is black on 

 the upper surface, greyish-brown below ; the base of the tail is nearly 

 naked. 



The following admeasurements are taken from two specimens ; the 

 one not quite grown, a stuffed skin in bad preservation ; the other an 



