36o MUSCARDINID^— MUSCARDINUS 



with a less bushy tail is assumed ; but the young are distinguishable 

 until the spring following their birth (Bell, ipse\ the adults being 

 darker and more richly coloured. 



In the maxillary teeth the premolar has normally two ridges; these 

 are joined internally and sometimes also externally, so as to form a 

 raised circular rim. A small third ridge may be present at the back of 

 the tooth. The ist molar is about twice the size of the 2nd; it is 

 decidedly longer than broad, and narrower in front than behind; its 

 anterior border is oblique, its inner border abruptly notched behind the 

 first of five very distinct outstanding ridges; these (except the last) 

 slope obliquely backwards to the inner margin, and terminate exteriorly 

 in five low cusps, which decrease in height regularly from front to back ; 

 interiorly the first ridge alone is cusped. The three anterior ridges are 

 more widely separated than the two posterior ; the first is isolated, but 

 the remainder meet to form a longitudinal ridge on the inner border of 

 the tooth. The 2nd molar is only slightly longer than broad, so that 

 its outline is nearly square ; it has seven low, nearly transverse, equi- 

 distant ridges, of which the outer extremities appear as five or six low 

 cusps; all the ridges except occasionally the third, extend right across 

 the tooth ; the posterior ones may be branched. The 3rd molar 

 resembles the 2nd, but is smaller, and its rounded posterior border is 

 contracted ; the posterior ridges are usually incomplete and confused. 



In the mandibular teeth the lower incisors have roots extending 

 distinctly beyond those of the 3rd molars. The cheek-teeth resemble 

 those of the upper jaw ; but the molars show less diversity amongst 

 themselves, each having six distinct more or less transverse ridges, the 

 terminations of which appear as low cusps. They diminish in size from 

 before backwards, the third being little more than half the size of the 

 first in crown area. The first is longer than broad, and narrower in 

 front than behind ; the second is almost rectangular in outline, but 

 rather narrower behind than in front, and slightly longer than broad ; 

 the third is much constricted posteriorly. 



Individual variation is not conspicuous, but specimens with the tail 

 tipped with white are frequently met with (as mentioned by Brookes in 

 1-763) ; they are sometimes known as " lion dormice " (Adams), and are 

 valued above the ordinary (see Rope, Zoologist, I'SSs, 212; Willmore 

 Journ. et ann. cit., 304; Parrott, Journ. cit., 1887, 463). White or 

 albinic varieties are very rare ; the following may be mentioned : — 

 one from Devon in Leach's collection (Bellamy) ; one, pure white, in 

 the Borrer collection (Harting, Field, 17th March 1906, 433); one, 

 wholly white with red eyes, taken alive in Kent (R. L., Field, loth March 

 1906,389); a pure albino from Guestling, Hastings, in the Hastings 

 Museum ; one, cream-coloured, in Whitaker's collection ; three, white, in 

 a litter of six half-grown young seen with normal mother by Owen 

 Jones {Field, 22nd September 1906, 540 ; Gamekeeper's Notebook, 208). 



