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MURIDjE-SIGMODONTES-HESPEUOMYS palusteis. 



113 



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are not actuall}' more liUe Mas than tliey arc like Ilesperomys. Tliis cranial 

 resemblance to Old World Murines is strikingly borne ont by the external 

 characters of the animal, which, in general appearance, looks really more like 

 a small house-rat than like one of our New World Hesperomys. Tiic resem- 

 blance is at a climax in the very long, scant-haired tail, on which not only are 

 the annul! distinct, but the granular plates perfectly evident, at least along the 

 upper side of the tail. The aquatic nature of the animal is indicated by the 

 feet and ears. The former are much like those of Fiber in being naked and 

 granular beneath, velvety-pilous above, and especially in having such long toes, 

 slightly webbed at base and set obliquely on the metatarsus, to facilitate their 

 "feathering" during their forward motion in swimming. The low, orbicular, 

 thickly hirsute ears are specially provided with a fluflfy tuft inside to guard 

 against entrance of water, and the antitragus is well developetl for the same 

 purpose. While the general construction of the feet is much as in Fiber, the 

 tuberculation of the soles is like that of J/jM. '.■"' > i 



On the whole, we may consider this animal as (next after Onijchoinys 

 leucogaster, which leans so strongly toward Arvicola through Evotoinyx) the 

 most aberrant of the North American group of small Hesperomys, sharing 

 many features of the larger Sigmodon, showing a slight approach, by analogy 

 at least, to Fiber, aYid having much real affinity with the Old World Miis 

 proper. It is certainly the nearest to typical Mus of anything we have in 

 North America ; it inclines toward Mus proper, and especially to Sigmodon,* 

 much as Onychomys, our only other subtypical section of Hesperomys, does 

 toward Arvicola. 



HESPEROMYS (ORYZOMYS) PALUSTUI?, (Htrl.) 'V,:g„er. , 



Blcc-fleld Moose. 



Jfii» palmtrit, Harlan, Am. Joarn. Sci. ixxi, 1837, 3^ (New Joreey). 



He»peromy$ palmtrU, Waonrr, Suppl. Schreb. Hi, 1843, 543.— LrContk, Proc. Acad. Nut. Sci. Phila. v\, 



1853, 410.— Allen, 3ii1I. Mii». CoDip. Zuol. ii, 1870, 182 (Florida). 

 nesptromyt (Orgtomi/t) pntuitrii, Uaikd, M. N. A. 18.'i7, 482 (Oeorgia and South Carolina).— CouES, Proo. 



Acad. Nat. Sci. Pbila. 1874, 184. 

 Arvieota oryzitora, AUD. &. Bach., Q. N. A. iii, 1853, 214, pi. 144, fig. 3. 



Habitat. — South Atlantic and Gulf States, especially in maritime por- 

 tions and in rice-fields. Kansas! (Gro«a). Mexico {Sumickrast). Jamaica?? 

 The specific characters of this animal are necessarily involved with 



* We have already noted how clou is the relatinn between' Orynmiy* and ligmodon, showing that 

 the former in na much to be considered a section of Sigmodon as of Beaperomjii, auu that Sigmodon itself 

 is hardly or not more different from ordinary Huperomyt than OrftoMj/i is. 

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