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last Catalogue (1873) he divides the genus into three-Hyrax, Euhyrax and Dendrohyrax-the latter consisting of two species confined apparently to West and South Africa.

No extinct forms of this family have yet been discovered; the Hyracotherium of the London clay (Lower Eocene) which was supposed to resemble Hyrax, is now believed to be an ancestral type of the Suidæ or swine.

Order X-RODENTIA.

FAMILY 55.-MURIDÆ. (37 Genera, 330 Species.)

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The Muridæ, comprising the rats and mice with their allies, are almost universally distributed over the globe (even not reckoning the domestic species which have been introduced almost everywhere by man), the exceptions being the three insular groups belonging to the Australian region, from none of which have any species yet been obtained. Before enumerating the genera it will be as well to say a few words on the peculiarities of distribution they present. The true mice, forming the genus Mus, is distributed over the whole of the world except N. and S. America where not a single indigenous species occurs, being replaced by the genus Hesperomys; five other genera, comprehending all the remaining species found in South America are peculiar to the Neotropical region. Three genera are confined to the Palearctic region, and three others to the Nearctic. No less than twelve genera are exclusively Ethiopian, while only three are exclusively Oriental and three Australian.

Mus (100-120 sp.) the Eastern Hemisphere, but absent from the Pacific and Austro-Malayan Islands, except Celebes and Papua ; Lasiomys (1 sp.) Guinea; Acanthomys (5-6 sp.) Africa, India and

N. Australia; Cricetomys (1 sp.) Tropical Africa; Saccostomus (2 sp.) Mozambique; Cricetus (9 sp.) Palearctic region and Egypt; Cricetulus (1 sp., Milne-Edwards, 1870) Pekin; Pseudomys (1 sp.) Australia; Hapalotis (13 sp.) Australia; Phlæomys (1 sp.) Philippines; Platacanthomys (1 sp., Blyth, 1865) Malabar; Dendromys (2 sp.) S. Africa; Nesomys (1 sp. Peters, 1870) Madagascar ; Steatomys (2 sp.) N. and S. Africa; Pelomys (1 sp.) Mozambique; Reithrodon (9 sp.) N. America, Lat. 29° to Mexico, and south to Tierra del Fuego; Acodon (1 sp.) Peru; Myxomys (1 sp.) Guatemala; Hesperomys (90 sp.) North and South America; Holochilus (4 sp.) South America; Oxymycterus (4 sp.) Brazil and La Plata ; Neotoma (6 sp.) U.S., East coast to California; Sigmodon (2 sp.) Southern United States; Drymomys (1 sp.) Peru; Neotomys (2 sp.) S. America; Otomys (6 sp.) S. and E. Africa; Meriones = Gerbillus (20-30 sp.) Egypt, Central Asia, India, Africa; Rhombomys (6 sp.) S. E. Europe, N. Africa, Central Asia; Malacothrix (2 sp.) South Africa; Mystromys (1 sp) South Africa; Psammomys (1 sp.) Egypt; Spalacomys (1 sp.) India; Sminthus (1-3 sp.) East Europe, Tartary, Siberia; Hydromys (5 sp.) Australia and Tasmania; Hypogeomys (1 sp., Grandidier, 1870) Madagascar; Brachytarsomys (1 sp., Günther, 1874) Madagascar; Fiber (2 sp.) N. America to Mexico; Arvicola (50 sp.) Europe to Asia Minor, North Asia, Himalayas, Temp. N. America; Cuniculus (1 sp.) N. E. Europe, Siberia, Greenland, Arctic America; Myodes (4 sp.) Europe, Siberia, Arctic America, and Northern United States; Myospalax = Siphneus (2 sp.) Altai Mountains and N. China1; Lophiomys (1 sp.) S. Arabia, and N. E. Africa; Echiothrix (1 sp.) Australia.

Extinct Murida.-Species of Mus, Cricetus, Arvicola, and Myodes, occur in the Post-Pliocene deposits of Europe; Arvicola, Meriones, and the extinct genus Cricetodon, with some others, in the Miocene.

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In North America, Fiber, Arvicola, and Neotoma, occur in caves;

Myospalax has hitherto formed part of the next family, Spalacidæ ; but a recent examination of its anatomy by M. Milne-Edwards shows that it belongs to the Muridæ, and comes near Arvicola.

an extinct genus, Eumys, in the Upper Miocene of Dakota, and another, Mysops, in the Eocene of Wyoming.

In South America Mus, or more probably Hesperomys, is abundant in Brazilian caverns, and Orymycterus in the Pliocene of La Plata; while Arvicola is said to have occurred both in the Pliocene and Eocene deposits of the same country.

FAMILY 56.-SPALACIDE. (7 Genera, 17 Species.)

GENERAL DISTRIBUTION.

NFOTROPICAL NEARCTIC PALEARCTIC ETHIOPIAN ORIENTAL
SUB-REGIONS. SUB-REGIONS. SUB-REGIONS. SUB-REGIONS. SUB-REGIONS.

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AUSTRALIAN SUB-REGIONS.

The Spalacidae, or mole-rats, have a straggling distribution over the Old World continents. They are found over nearly the whole of Africa, but only in the South-east of Europe, and West of Temperate Asia, but appearing again in North India, Malacca, and South China. Ellobius (1 sp.), is found in South Russia and South-west Siberia; Spala (1 sp.), Southern Russia, West Asia, Hungary, Moldavia, and Greece (Plate II., vol. i. p. 218); Rhizomys (6 sp.), Abyssinia, North India, Malacca, South China; Heterocephalus (1 sp.), Abyssinia; Bathyerges (= Orycterus 1 sp.), South Africa; Georychus (6 sp.), South, Central, and East Africa; Heliophobes (1 sp.), Mozambique.

FAMILY 57.-DIPODIDE. (3 Genera, 22 Species.)

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The Jerboas, or jumping mice, are especially characteristic of the regions about the eastern extremity of the Mediterranean, being found in South Russia, the Caspiau district, Arabia, Egypt,

and Abyssinia; but they also extend over a large part of Africa, and eastward to India; while isolated forms occur in North America, and the Cape of Good Hope. Dipus = Gerbillus (20 sp.), inhabits North and Central Africa, South-East Europe, and across Temperate Asia to North China, also Affghanistan, India, and Ceylon; Pedetes (1 sp.), South Africa to Mozambique and Angola; Jaculus Meriones (1 sp.), North America, from Nova Scotia and Canada, south to Pennsylvania and west to California and British Columbia (Plate XX., vol. ii. p. 135).

Extinct Dipodidae.-Dipus occurs fossil in the Miocene of the Alps; and an extinct genus, Issiodromys, said to be allied to Pedetes of the Cape of Good Hope, is from the Pliocene formations of Auvergne in France.

FAMILY 58.-MYOXIDE. (1 Genus, 12 Species.)

GENERAL DISTRIBUTION.

NEOTROPICAL NEARCTIC PALEARCTIC ETHIOPIAN ORIENTAL AUSTRALIAN SUB-REGIONS. SUB-REGIONS. SUB-REGIONS. SUB-REGIONS. SUB-REGIONS. SUB-REGIONS.

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The Dormice (Myoxus), are small rodents found over all the temperate parts of the Palearctic region, from Britain to Japan; and also over most parts of Africa to the Cape, but wanting in India. Some of the African species have been separated under the name of Graphidurus, while those of Europe and Asia form the sub-genera Glis, Muscardinus, and Eliomys.

Extinct Myoxida.-Myoxus ranges from the Post-pliocene of the Maltese caverns to the Miocene of Switzerland and the Upper Eocene of France; and an extinct genus Brachymys is found in the Miocene of Central Europe.

FAMILY 59-SACCOMYIDE. (6 Genera, 33 Species.)

GENERAL DISTRIBUTION.

NEOTROPICAL NEARCTIC PALEARCTIC ETHIOPIAN
SUB-REGIONS. SUB-REGIONS. SUB-REGIONS. SUB-REGIONS.

1.2.3.4

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ORIENTAL AUSTRALIAN SUB-REGIONS. SUB-REGIONS.

The Saccomyidæ, or pouched rats, are almost wholly confined to our second Nearctic sub-region, comprising the Rocky Mountains and the elevated plains of Central North America. A few species range from this district as far as Hudson's Bay on the north, to South Carolina on the east, and to California on the west, while one genus, doubtfully placed. here, goes south as far as Honduras and Trinidad. The group must therefore be considered to be pre-eminently characteristic of the Nearctic region.

The genera are,-Dipodomys (5 sp.), North Mexico, California, the east slope of the Rocky Mountains to the Columbia River, and one species in South Carolina; Perognathus (6 sp.), North Mexico, California, east slope of the Rocky Mountains to British Columbia; Thomomys (2 sp.), Upper Missouri, and Upper Columbia Rivers to Hudson's Bay; Geomys (5 sp.), North Mexico, and east slope of Rocky Mountains to Nebraska (Plate XIX., vol. ii. p. 129); Saccomys (1 sp.), North America, locality unknown; Heteromys (6 sp.), Mexico, Honduras, and Trinidad. Geomys and Thomomys constitute a separate family Geomyidæ, of Professor Carus; but I follow Professor Lilljeborg, who has made a special study of the Order, in keeping them with this family.

In the Post-Pliocene deposits of Illinois and Nebraska, remains of an existing species of Geomys have been found.

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