THE SHORT-TAILED UTIA. 
471 
and with myself, was the first to see that the Cony of 
Jamaica had no close affinity with the Caviform 
Rodentia, but was generically identical with the 
Capromys of Cuba. The details of structure by 
which he convincingly proves these facts, want of 
space compels me to omit ; but his polite transmission 
to me of specimens in skin and in spirit, has enabled 
me to confirm his conclusions, and to give to the 
Indian Cony the specific name and the distinctive 
characters contained in the note below.* 
From the letters of this gentleman, however, I 
gladly make the following extracts, comprising many 
particulars of the economy and structure of this 
animal : — 
* The Short-tailed Utia. ( Capromys hrachyurus, Hill.) Tail very 
short, about one-eighth of the total length. Fur dense and harsh, 
generally from f to 1 inch in length, with a few longer hairs inter- 
mixed, but all of one kind : each hair is black, with a ring of bright 
bay or golden brown near the tip, imparting a brindled appearance 
to the fur, like that of a dark specimen of the Brown Rat. On the 
throat, breast, and belly the fur is yellowish, becoming white along 
the mesial line. The feet are clothed with blackish hair, short and 
stiff ; the soles are black, roughened with rasp-like warts. The thumb 
of the fore-paws is a rudimentary tubercle, but armed with a distinct 
blunt nail. The great toe of the hind feet set far back, separable, and 
thumb-like. Ears blackish grey, short, and fleshy. Muffle (or broad 
flat termination of the snout) blackish, clothed with a glistening pile 
of very short down, the extreme margins of the nostrils alone being 
naked. Moustaches long. Incisors white. Molars with two deep 
oblique folds externally and one internally. Tail stiff, taper, with 
rounded point ; scaly, with thick short bristly hair, which is black on 
the upper surface, greyish-brown below : the base of the tail is nearly 
naked. 
The following admeasurements are taken from two specimens ; the 
one not quite grown, a stuffed skin in bad preservation ; the other an 
