OCR Text |
Show 150 MAMMALIA. SPALAX, Gulden. The Rat-Moles have also been very properly separated from the Rats, although their grinders are three in number, and tuberculous, as in the true Rats, and the Hamsters, and are merely a little less unequal. Their incisors, however, are too large to be covered by the lips, and the extremities of the lower ones are trenchant, recti· linear, and transverse, not pointed. Their legs are very short; each foot has five short toes, and as many flat and slender nails. Their tail is very short, or rather there is none ; the same observa· tion applies to their external ear. They live under ground like the Moles, raising up the earth like them, although provided with much inferior means for dividing it, but they subsist on roots only. S. typhus; M. typhus, Pall. Glir. pl. viii, Schreb. 206. (The Zanni, Slepez or Blind Rat-Mole.) A singular animal, which, from its large head, angular on the sides, its short legs, the total absence of a tail and of any apparent eye, has a most shapeless appearance. The eye is not visible externally, and we merely find beneath the skin a little black point, which ap· pears to be organised like one, but which cannot serve for the purpose of vision, since the skin passes over it without opening or even growing thinner, and being as much covered with hair as any other part. It is rather larger than our Rat; its fur is smooth, and of an ash colour, bordering on a red. This is the animal, in the opinion of Olivier, to which the ancients alluded when they spoke of the :.vlole as being perfectly blind. The islands in the straits of Sunda produce a Rat-Mole as large as a Rabbit, of a deep grey colour, with a white longitu· dinal stripe on the head, the Spalaxj avanus. From the Rat-Moles themselves should have been separated the BATIIYERGus, Illig.-ORYCTEREs, Fr. Cuv. Which, with the general form, feet, and truncated incisors of that genus, have four grinders throughout. Their eye, though smaU,ls visible, and they have a short tail. B. maritimus; Mus maritimus, Gm.; Taupe des dames, Buff. Supp. VI, xxxviii. (The Maritime Rat-Mole.) Nearly the size of a Rabbit; the superior incisors furrowed with a groove, and the hair of a whitish grey. B. capensis; M. capensis, Gm.; Taupe du Cap., Buff. Supp· VI, xxxvi. (The Rat-Mole of the Cape.) Hardly as largeas the Guinea-Pig; brown, with a spot round the ear, another round the eye, and a third on the vortex, together with the eno of the muzzle, white. The incisors are smooth. RODENTIA. 151 B. hottentottua, Less. and Garn ., Voy · de Ia c oqu1'I I e, pl. ii (The Hottentot Rat-Mole.) Smaller '• grey,. 1· nc·1 sors smooth •· hardly as large as a Rat. The ' GEo~tvs, Rafin.-PsEUDOSTOMA, Say · -AscoMYs , LI'C h ten. Which have four compressed prismatic molar s t h roughout • the fir.s t double,. the remaining three simple'· the upp er I· nC·i sors furro' wed With a double groove in front • five toes t h f' · · • • ' 0 eac oot ; the three middle anterwr nails, that of the medius par t1' cu1 a r1 y , very Ion · crooked, and trench.a nt. They are low anim a1s , an d h ave very deeg , cbeek·pouches, . whic. h open externally' enl argm· g t h e S·i des of thpe head anGd nbe ck m. a smgular manner. One s pec1. es on1 y 1•s known . ursanua; Mus bursarius, Shaw.( 1) (The C d H ' t ) s· f , ana a am-s er. Ize o a Rat; ·fur of a reddish grey • tail nak d and but half the length of the body Inh b · t d ' e ' the interior of North America. . a 1 s eep burrows in DIPLOSTOMA, Rafin. The Diplostomre are almost preci'sely . 'J h simi ar to the Geomys, but t ey have no tai1.(2) be£T hese a.n imals are also from North Arne ri. ca. The species ore us ls reddish, and ten inches in length. h Weh'n~w pass to larger Rodentia than those of which we d:~: d1t 1er~o spoken, but of which several still have well e c aviCles. Of this number is the CAsToR, Lin. The Beavers are distinguished f I horizontally flattened tail . r~m a 1 other Rodentia by their covered with scale T ' which IS nearly of an oval form, and hinder ones s. hey have five toes to each foot: those of the h as a doubla re codn nec.t ed by memb ranes, an d t 1l at next to the thumb four throu :o:: obhq~e nail. Their grinders, to the number of doubled bo:y fill' t and with flat crowns, appear as if formed of a e 'or so as to show one sloping edge at the internal (l) The figures of th' · and Shaw Vol IT •s ammal, first published Trans. Lin. Soc. Vol V I ... ~heek.pou~hes ~urn~!~~:.~' pl. 138, represe?t it with the internal ~ki:l pof ~;~; ead. There is nothin ;.ke o_ut,_ as though tt had two sacs to the sides of the 18(22and 1823 pi .. g 1 e tt m nature. It is well represented Acad B ·I· 2 ) ' .u. , . e1 m, M'. Uafinesque describes the h · species has five l'lr- th mas :l.Vlng only four toes to each foot. The ' h- e Geomys. |