370 
NEW KIND OF VOLE. 
the tail, and 1 inch in the tail itself; the broadest 
part of the animal is at the back of the head, where 
it measures inclusive of the hair 1 inch; the highest 
part also is the occiput, which indeed rises slightly 
above the vertebrae of the neck and back, and renders 
this part of the animal (when standing,) 1J inches 
in height. It has four toes in front, and five behind, 
the whole furnished with claws; the front feet are 
hairy down to the toes, the hinder are similarly 
clothed, but the hair is very short. The tail is 
covered with short bristly hairs, and the tip is 
provided with a slight pencil. The length of the 
head is nine tenths of an inch, it is broad and deep, 
with bristles nearly an inch long. The ears are 
nearly concealed by the fur, are margined by some 
short hairs, are broad and capacious, and have a 
valvular projection at their bottoms. Incisors, light 
yellow and with very keen edges. The whole head 
and body are covered by a fur peculiarly rough in 
appearance because long and scanty ; the hairs 
measure generally as much as four tenths of an inch 
in length ; on the lower parts however the fur is 
shorter; its colour on the upper parts is ash termi¬ 
nated by brown towards the ends of the hairs ; on 
the lower parts and sides the hairs are ash colour 
at their bases, and whitish brown at their ends. 
Altogether, the creature has a very rough aspect 
and bears a strange resemblance to the rough breed 
of terrier dog. It was captured by myself about 
June, 28th, 1837, in a hay field in a very dry situ¬ 
ation near my residence at Yealmpton, and I am 
tolerably sure that other specimens of the same 
kind occurred the next year in the very same spot 
where the first was killed, but I was not fortunate 
enough to obtain them from the man who mowed 
the grass and killed them. 
There might be some ground to suspect that this 
animal was no more than a variety of the Meadow 
