of species known of
this family throughout the world exceed 330, of which probably not
more than one-fourth or fifth are to be found in India and adjacent
countries.

FAMILY MURIDAE.

CHARACTER.--"Lower incisors compressed; no premolars; molars rooted
or rootless, tuberculate or with angular enamel folds; frontals
contracted; infra-orbital opening in typical forms high,
perpendicular, wide above and narrowed below, with the lower root
of the maxillary zygomatic process more or less flattened into a
perpendicular plate; very rarely the opening is either large and oval,
or small and sub-triangular. Malar short and slender, generally
reduced to a splint between the maxillary and squamosal processes;
external characters very variable; pollex rudimentary, but often
with a small nail; tail generally sub-naked and scaly, rarely densely
haired."--_Alston_, 'P. Z. S.' 1876.

This family is divided into about ten sub-families, of which the
Indian ones are as follows: _Platacanthyominae_; _Gerbillinae_;
_Phlaeomyinae_; _Murinae_; _Arvicolinae_; _Cricetinae_.

The other four are _Sminthinae_, _Hydromyinae_, _Dendromyinae_, and
_Siphneinae_, none of which are found within our limits.

_GENUS PLATACANTHOMYS_.

CHARACTER.--Molars 3/3, divided into transverse laminae;
infra-orbital opening as in typical _Muridae_; incisive foramina and
auditory bullae small; form _myoxine_ (or dormouse-like); fur mixed
with flat spines; tail densely hairy. The general resemblance of this
animal to the dormouse (_Myoxus_) is striking, to which its hairy
tail and its habits conduce, but on closer examination its small eyes,
thin ears, short thumb of the fore-foot bring it into the murine
family. The genus was first noted and named by Blyth, who seemed
inclined to class it as a dormouse, but this has not been upheld for
the reasons given above, and also that _Platacanthomys_ has the
normal _murine_ number of molars, viz.: 3--3/3--3, whereas _Myoxus_
has an additional premolar above and below. These points were first
brought to notice by Prof. Peters of Berlin (_see_ 'P. Z. S.' 1865,
p. 397). There is a coloured plate of the animal in the same volume,
but it is not so well executed as most of the illustrations in the
Society's works.

NO. 316. PLATACANTHOMYS LASIURUS.
_The Long-tailed Spiny Mouse_ (_Jerdon's No. 198_).

HABITAT.--Southern India.

DESCRIPTION.--Light rufescent brown; the under fur paler, more
rufous on the forehead and c