640 ON THE POSITION OF THE FAMILY DIPODID^. [NoV. 14, 



"we value our own lives more than money." It is only a few of 

 the more daring spirits among them who, knowing the oding, i. e. 

 the secret by which they can disarm it of its dreaded power, have 

 the courage to attempt its capture. Occasionally it is brought to 

 Tamatave for sale, where it realizes a good sum. Now and then it 

 is accidentally caught in the traps which the natives set for Lemurs ; 

 but the owner of the trap, unless one of those versed in the Aye-aye 

 mysteries, who knows the charm by which to counteract its evil 

 power, smears fat over it, thus securing its forgiveness and good- 

 will, and then sets it free. The story goes that occasionally when 

 a person sleeps in the forest the Aye-aye brings a pillow for him : if 

 a pillow for the head, the person will become rich ; if for the feet, he 

 will shortly succumb to the creature's fatal power, or at least will 

 become bewitched. Such is the account the natives give of the 

 curious Chiromys madagascariensis. 

 Antananarivo, Madagascar, July 1882. 



3. On the Natural Position of the Family Dipodidis. 

 By G. E. DoBsoN, M.A., M.B. 



[Received October 16, 1882.] 



Since Mr. G. R. Waterhouse, in 1839, proposed what may be 

 with justice termed the first approach to a natural arrangement of 

 the families of Rodentia, other systems of classification, down to 

 that of Alston in 18/6, have from time to time appeared. In all, 

 however, the family DipodidcB has been placed either next the 

 MuridcB, or in the same group with them, being separated from the 

 hystricine rodents evidently mainly on account of the united con- 

 dition of the tibia and fibula, but possibly also by some of the older 

 zoologists on account of the superficial resemblance borne by one of 

 the species at least to the true Mice. The object of this communi- 

 cation is to show that the position hitherto assigned to these rodents 

 cannot be maintained on natural grounds. 



Lately, while investigating the various modes of arrangement of 

 the long flexor muscles of the feet of Mammalia, I was struck by 

 the fact that the species of Dipodidce agreed altogether in the 

 united condition of the tendons of these muscles with the hys- 

 tricine rodents, and not with the Myomorpha, in which group they 

 have hitherto been placed. The importance of this character, 

 which I have elsewhere^ fully demonstrated, led me to carefully in- 

 quire into the value of the so-called murine aflSnities of the Dipo- 

 didce, with the result that these may be said to consist only in the 

 united condition of the leg-bones. On the other hand, all the lead- 

 -in a paper, " Oti the Homologies of the Long Flexor Muscles of the Feet 

 of Mammalia," read before the Biological Section of the British Association 

 for the Advancement of Science at Southampton, in August last, and subse- 

 quently published in the ' Journal of Anatomy and Physiology,' vol. xvii. 

 (1882-83). 



