RODENTIA-MURITTAE-HESPEROMYS. 
455 
Oxymicterus, Waterhouse. 
Oxymicterus, Waterhouse, Proc. Zool. Soc. Y, 1837, 30. 
Wagner, Suppl. Schreb. Saug. Ill, 1843, 513. 
Burmeister, Thiere Bras. I, 1854, 182. 
Form, Lemming-like. Eyes and -whiskers small; tail and feet short. Claws very long and sharp ; thumb with a distinct 
claw. Muzzle prolonged into a trumpet-shaped tube. Central molar in either jaw with only one indentation on each 
side ; the very small posterior molar with none at all. 
Where Habrothrix represents the Arvicolas, according to Burmeister, the species of Oxymic¬ 
terus hear the same relation to the Lemmings, as far as the stout body, short tail and feet, long 
claws, and the distinct claw on the thumb of the fore foot extend, instead of a broad nail, as in 
Calomys and Habrotlirix. The muzzle is very large and pointed, more so than in Habrotlirix ; 
but like it, the fur is short, with the coarse hairs projecting but slightly ; eyes small and the 
whiskers feeble. The ears are well furred. The soles are naked from the heel. The edge of 
the intermaxillary is prolonged into a tube completed by the elongated nasal bones widening 
at the end, somewhat like a trumpet. The incisive foramina extend back between the molars ; 
the ante-orbital foramen is small. The upper edges of the orbit are much rounded, the fore¬ 
head broader between the orbits than in Calomys, the nasal bones extending much further back. 
The molars have short wide folds when worn, somewhat similar to those of Arvicola, without 
any enamel islands. 
A careful comparison of the species of the Sigmodont group of North and South America is 
quite sufficient to show that, with the same general characters, the minor conditions vary 
throughout. I have not had, as yet, the opportunity of examining more than one South American 
species; but judging from this, and from the very accurate figures and descriptions of Waterhouse, 
Wagner, Burmeister, and others, I consider it entirely probable that a very critical and extended 
investigation will show that even the genera, much more the sub-genera, are entirely different. 
A striking feature of tbe North American vesper mice, to anglicise Wagner’s name, is tbeir 
diminutive size compared with the South American. Many species of the latter are fully equal 
to the rats, or even larger, some of them, as Holochilus, with still larger teeth. Scarcely one 
of our species exceeds four inches to the root of the tail in the flesh, while most are the size of 
the common house mouse or less. The South American Reithrodons have a body six inches in 
length, so stout and full, and the head so large and much arched, that one species has been called 
R. cuniculoides, rabbit-like. The tail, also, does not exceed half the length of the body. Our 
species, on the contrary, are the smallest of our mice, scarcely more than half the size of the 
house mouse, which they otherwise closely resemble in shape and proportions. The tail is as long 
as the body alone, or else longer than the head and body together. The shape and character of 
the skull are quite different. 
The only one of the South American subdivisions of the genus Hesperomys to which our North 
American animals even approximate is Calomys. Even here the South American species are 
mostly of large size, only a few as diminutive as the largest of ours. None of the divisions of 
Habrotlirix, Scapteromys, Oxymicterus, or Pliyllotis, not to mention Holochilus, are represented 
in any North American species. 
It then becomes necessary to seek for some other arrangement for the North American vesper 
mice, and this is readily indicated by an examination of tbe species now known to naturalists 
in which sub-generic distinctions, as well defined as those of the South American, can easily be 
found. I have satisfied myself of the existence of four groups, readily distinguishable by 
