Messrs. Say and Ord on Neotoma Floridana. 295 



Length from the tip of the snout to the anus, seven inclies 

 and a half : tail six inches and a quarter long. Male. 



The body has none of those long rigid hairs which are so 

 notable in Mus decumens. The whole pelage feels velvety, par- 

 ticularly the belly, which is as soft as that of the common flying 

 squirrel. The testes are hardly visible externally, differing, in 

 this respect, from those of the house rat, which are so conspicu- 

 ous an apparatus in this unwelcome guest. 



This beautiful animal was discovered in a log granary, situated 

 in a ruined and deserted plantation, in East Florida. When first 

 aroused, it ran a short distance, then returned, and stood close by 

 us, allowing us to touch it with a gun before it again returned. 

 It was mild, or without that suspicious and cunning air, which is 

 so remarkable in the common brown rat. We have reason to 

 think that the species is not uncommon in Florida, as several 

 individuals were seen by Mr. Say, in an old mansion ; but he 

 was unprovided with the means of capturing them. 



Brought from East Florida, in the year 1818, in collection of 

 Messrs. Maclure, Say, Ord and Peele, and deposited in the Phi- 

 ladelphia Museum. 



The individual above described was the only one we were en- 

 abled to procure, during our journey into Florida. It was a 

 young one, and not fully grown, as we may reasonably conjecture 

 from the greater size of the old individual of the same species, 

 which was procured by W. Say on the Missouri, and described in 

 Long's expedition to the rocky mountains. 



In the year 1818, Mr. Ord sent to the Philomatic Society of 

 Paris, a short description, accompanied with a figure, of this 

 animal, which was named Mus Floridanus^ and the description 

 in the Bulletin of the Society for December, in the same year. 

 In the hurry incident to travelling, he had neglected to examine 

 its teeth when recently killed ; and afterwards assuming as a fact, 

 what ought not to have been assumed, that it was a true Mus^ 

 he did not hesitate to class it under that denomination. The na- 

 turalists of Paris questioned the propriety of this nomenclature ; 

 and with Mous. de Blainville, who prepared the account for the 



