Zoological Society. 221 



Cricetomys Gambianus. Cri. magnitudine corporis duplo, vel 

 plus, majore qudm in Mure decumano : colore fere eodem • auri- 

 bus mediocribus, pilis minutis vestitis ; caudd corpus cum capite 

 cequante ; pedibus mediocre parvis ; vellere brevi, adpresso, et sub- 

 rigido ; colore cinerescenti-fusco \ pedibus partibusque inferioribus 

 sordide albis ; caudd ad basin, pilis intense fuscis, ad apicem, albis, 

 obsitd. 



una lin. 



Longitudo ab apice rostri ad caudae basin 16 



basin auris 2 9 



tarsi digit orumque 2 6 



auris 11 



— cauda 15 



The Gambia Pouched-Rat is about double the size of the common 

 Rat (Mus decumanus) ; in its colouring and proportions it greatly 

 resembles that animal ; the fur is rather harsher, and more scanty : 

 the general colour of the upper parts of the body is a trifle paler 

 than in Mus decumanus. The head is tolerably long, and pointed ; 

 the ears are of moderate size and rounded form ; the feet are of mo- 

 derate size ; the tail is nearly equal to the head and body in length, 

 thick at the base, covered with small adpressed harsh hairs ; but these 

 are not sufficiently numerous to hide the scales ; about one third of the 

 tail at the base is of a deep brown colour, the hairs covering the re- 

 maining portion are pure white, and the skin itself has evidently 

 been of a paler hue than on the basal part of the tail. The far on 

 the body is somewhat adpressed, and the hairs are glossy on the back ; 

 they are of an ashy-gray colour at the base ; the apical half of each 

 is brownish-yellow, but at the points many of them are brownish ; 

 many longer hairs intermixed with the ordinary fur of the back are 

 almost entirely of a brownish-black colour. The whole of the under 

 parts of the head and body and inner side of the limbs are white ; 

 the hairs on the belly are rather scanty, and of an uniform colour to 

 the root : the fore feet are whitish, and the tarsi are white, but 

 clouded with brown in the middle. The ears are but sparingly 

 clothed with short hairs, which on the inner side are whitish, and on 

 the outer brown. 



January 14 and 28th, 1840. — William Yarrell, Esq., Vice-Presi- 

 dent, in the Chair. 



Mr. Ogilby read his paper entitled *. A Monograph of the Hollow- 

 horned Ruminants,' of which the following is an abstract : — 



" In revising the history of the Ruminantia," says Mr. Ogilby, 

 " the zoologist who, like myself, has made a special study of these 

 animals, must be forcibly struck with the confusion of synonyms, the 

 carelessness and inaccuracy of description, the vague and indefinite 

 limits of the generic and subgeneric groups, the trivial and confess- 

 edly empirical principles of classification, and, as a consequence, the 

 great number of nominal species, and the general disorder which 

 still prevail in this department of Mammalogy." He proceeds to 

 show that the views of the modern writers on this subject are no 



