460 RODENTIA 
molars very small, with the enamel-folds almost absent. Some 
three Ethiopian species. 
Claviglis..Represented by one West African species, said to be 
distinguished from all other forms by the shorter tail, which is 
more distinctly pencilled. The right to generic distinction is, how- 
ever, very problematical. 
Muscardinus.2—Includes the Common Dormouse (Jf. avellanarius) 
of Europe, distinguished by the cylindrical bushy tail, and thickened 
glandular walls of the cardiac extremity of the cesophagus; the 
molars have flat crowns, with complex enamel-folds. 
Fossil Dormice.—Using the generic term Myoxus in a more 
extended sense than the above, it has existed in Europe from the 
date of the Upper Eocene. A species nearly as large as a Guinea- 
Pig, with very complex molars, is common in the Pleistocene of 
Malta. 
Family LoPHIOMYID2. 
The genus Lophiomys,? represented only by L. imhausi (Fig. 
Fic. 204.—Lophiomys imhausi. From Milne-Edwards. 
204) of North-East Africa, differs from the typical Muwridew in 
having the temporal fossee roofed over by a thin plate of bone, | 
rudimentary clavicles, and an opposable hallux. On these grounds 
it has been made the type of a family, but since all the features 
are Murine—the dentition being that of a typical Cricetine—it 
 Jentink, Notes Leyd. Mus. vol. x. p. 41 (1888), 
* Kaup, Entwickl. Europ. Thierwelt, p- 189 (1829). 
* A, Milne-Edwards, Z’Jnstitut, vol. xxxv. p. 46 (1867). 
