107 



GENUS FIBER.— Ilugee. 



DENTAL FOEMULA. 



Incisive t^; Molar 5^ =16. 



Lower incisors, sharp-pointed, and convex in front ; molars, with flat 

 crowns, furnished with scaly transverse zig-zag laminae. Fore-feet with 

 four toes and the rudiment of a thumb ; hind-feet, with five toes, the 

 edges furnished with stiff hairs, which assist the animal in swimming, in- 

 stead of the feet being palmated or webbed ; hind-toes, slightly palmated. 

 Tail, long, compressed, granular, nearly naked, having but a few scattered 

 hairs. Glands, near the origin of the tail, which secrete a white, musky, 

 and somewhat offensive fluid. Mammse six, abdominal. 



This genus differs from the Arvicol^ in its dentition ; the first inferior 

 molar, has one point more than the corresponding tooth in the latter, and 

 all the molars acquire roots immediately after the animal becomes an 

 adult. We have frequently heard complaints made by students of natu- 

 ral history, of the difficulties the}" had to encounter at the very outset, 

 from the want of accuracy and uniformity in the works of authors, when 

 stating the characters by which they defined the genera they established. 

 The justness of these complaints may be well illustrated by examining the 

 accounts of the present genus as given by several well-known WTiters. 



Illiger says it has four molars on each side, (Utrinqui quatemi,) 

 see Prodromus systematis mammaliarum et avum, making in aU twenty 

 teeth. WiEGMAN and Rhthe, have given the same dental arrangement, 

 see Handbuch der Zoologie, Berlin, 1832. F. Guvier, who has been fol- 

 lowed by most authors, has given it — Incisive f ; Canine |:::|, ^ sixteen 

 teeth. Griffith, Animal Kingdom, vol. iii., p. 106, describes it as having — 

 Incisive | ; Canine |:::t ^ twenty teeth ; and in his sjTiopsis of the spe- 

 cies of mammalia, (sp. 532,) its dental arrangement is thus characterized — 

 Incisive |, Canine l^\. Cheek-teeth, f^§, giving to it the extravagant 

 number of twenty-eight teeth. This last statement is most probably 

 only a typographical error. A correct examination and description of 

 the teeth of this genus requires a considerable degree of labour, besides 

 great attention and care, as they are placed so close to each other that 

 without a good magnifying glass it is difficult to find the lines of separa- 



