1895.] 



GIAJfT DOBMOITSB OF MALTA. 



861 



tx) belong to a true Dormouse and, from the presence of a 

 perforation near the angle, may be assigned to the genus, or 

 subgenus, Eliomys. 



Unfortunately, none of the skulls or lower jaws in the British 

 Museum are complete, although some of the latter are sufficiently 

 well preserved to show that the angle is constructed on the plan 

 obtaining in the Sciuromorpha and Myomorpha. One example of 



3 



Left upper cheek-teeth of (1) Leitkia, (2) Xerus, and (3) Myoxus quercinus. 



the cranium shows a very important difference from the Myoxidcs 

 in the region of the snout. In all the members of that family the 

 infraorbital foramina are large and open in the maxilla at the fore 

 root of the zygoma, in a manner somewhat similar to that 

 obtaining in the Muridce. On the other hand, in the ySctwricZoe the 

 same foramina are of very minute proportions, each forming 

 merely a small slit at the junction of the premaxilla with the 

 pRoo. ZooL, Soc— 1895, No. LV. 55 



