BATHYERGUS. 235 



[The Cape Mole-rat {Bathyergus, Brants).] 



From Mr. Banks \ 



It walks on the whole [hind] foot, which is short, as in the rat : the 

 great and little toes are like one another, only the great is the longest ; 

 the middle toe is the longest of all : the nails are pretty flat. The toes 

 are straight on the fore-feet : the thumb is the shortest, the fore-finger 

 the longest ; the rest gradually become shorter to the little finger. They 

 are flat sideways, with one edge forward and a little inward ; the hollow 

 concave edge turned backward and a little outward. The balls of the 

 thumb and little finger are very prominent and pointed downwards ; 

 they are tipped with a horny substance, on which the animal walks. 

 It has a thick short neck like a rat's. The axis of the head is almost 

 in the direction of the body. The external ear is not projecting, [there 

 being] only a canal, which is cartilaginous on the upper side of the 

 opening between the skin and the bone, covered with short hair. The 

 eyes are extremely small, so small that they are hardly to be seen. 

 The lower jaw is very short, which obliges the two fore -teeth of 

 that jaw to be very long. The two lips go on the inside of the 

 mouth, across the mouth, so that the fore-teeth are in view through 

 their whole length ; this makes the mouth small, and, of course, the 

 tongue. 



There are three nipples on each side, one on the inside of the 

 arm, one on the lower margin of the thorax, and the third on the 

 middle of the thigh ; the first and last are the largest. The thorax is 

 short for the whole length of the animal. There are thirteen [pairs 

 of] ribs 2 ; it has complete clavicles : the symphysis of the os pubis is 

 but short. 



The oesophagus is about an inch long below the diaphragm : it enters 

 the stomach about midway between the two ends. The left end of the 

 stomach becomes small from the oesophagus, and terminates in an 

 obtuse point ; the right end is bent upon itself, so that the pylorus is 

 near the insertion of the oesophagus. The duodenum passes to the 

 right, and at first a little upwards, then passes down the right side, 

 having a narrow mesentery ; it then crosses the spine to the left, being- 

 attached in this course only to the root of the mesentery, and is in 

 view through its whole course ; so that the mesentery does not attach 



1 [The dissection was therefore made before the year 1781 ; see note i. p. 49.] 



2 [This is the number in the skeleton of the male Bathyergus maritimus, No. 

 2246, Osteol. Series, Mus. Coll. Chir. ; but in the skeleton of the female there are 

 fourteen pairs of ribs, with only six instead of seven lumbar vertebra?.] 



