116 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 
The fore-extremities are short, only the wrist and fingers being visible beyond the body. They 
are covered exteriorly by a short, smooth, shining coat of hair, to the roots of the nails. Interiorly 
some long hairs curve over the wrist, and the palms and inner surfaces of the toes are naked. 
The nails are short, conical, very slightly curved, and much compressed. The second toe is 
the longest, the third is very nearly equal to it, the first is a little shorter, and rises higher up, 
and the thumb is by much the shortest and furthest back of all. The thumb has, however, a 
conspicuous phalanx, and its claw is as long and is of the same shape with those of the fingers, 
so that it ought not to be termed merely rudimentary. 
Nearly as little of the hind-legs appears as of the fore ones, but the feet are very much longer. 
The metatarsal bones are considerably longer than the toes, and the latter are separated their 
whole length. The hind-feet are turned obliquely inwards. Exteriorly, they have a shining, 
smooth, hairy covering, similar to that on the fore-feet, and, like it, of a grayish-brown colour ; 
but the margins of the soles and toes are furnished with an even row of long, shining, pale 
grayish-white hairs, curving inwards. The under surface of the feet is naked from the heel to 
the claws. The inner and outer toes arise nearly opposite to each other, and are about the 
same length. The remaining three arise from longer metatarsal bones, and their phalanges 
are nearly equal in length to each other. The two middle ones are united by a web, for 
about half the length of their first phalanges, and there is also a short web between the third 
and fourth toes. The claws of all the hind-toes are rather large, conical, slightly arched, thin, 
whitish, and excavated underneath, The hairs of the hind-feet do not extend much beyond 
the roots of the nails. From the shortness of its extremities, the Musquash runs badly, 
and is easily overtaken on land; but it swims and dives well, though it cannot continue long 
under water. 
Its tail is compressed, convex on the sides, with its acute edges in a vertical plane. It 
is covered with a thin, sleek coat of short hairs, which allow a number of small, roundish 
scales, well separated from each other, to appear through them. Both hairs and scales are of 
a dusky-brown colour. The acute margins of the tail are covered with a close line of longer 
hairs, those on the upper edge-being of a dark-brown colour, and those on the under one of a 
soiled-white. The tail is rather thicker in the middle than at the root, and it tapers gradually 
from its middle to its extremity, which is not acute. 
DIMENSIONS. 
Inches. Lines. Inches. Lines. 
Length of head and body : 5 ¢ 14 0 Length of fore-feet to the endofmiddleclaw 1 3 
i tail . é 0 - 8 6 | 9 hind feet, from heel to the end of 
cE. head c x OF : 3 4 the middle claw 6 . 3 20 
of whiskers . og : oes) 0 | o> hind claws. . ont the 0 6 
As lower incisors 0 9 5 from end of thenosetotheeye , 1 3 
There is a considerable variation in the size of individuals, as is common im all the species 
of the Linnean genus mus. 
The Musquashes have a strong musky smell, particularly the male ones in the 
