flesh tint; tail one-third of the body.

SIZE.--Head and-body, about 11 to 13 inches; tail, 3 to 4 inches.

NO. 399. RHIZOMYS MINOR.
_The Small Bamboo-Rat_.

NATIVE NAME.--_Khai_, Aracanese.

HABITAT.--Burmah, Upper Martaban, and at Yanageen on the
Irrawaddy.--_Blyth_.

DESCRIPTION.--"Dark sooty brown above, slightly tinged with deep
umber, which is most distinct on the sides of the head and neck, and
in reflected light; the under parts are like the upper, only the brown
tint is almost absent; the whiskers are black, and tail very sparsely
haired" (_Anderson_). "Dusky brown colour, with white muzzle and
around the eye, and pale naked feet" (_Blyth_).

SIZE.--Head and body, 6-1/2 inches; tail, 1-3/4 inch.

Blyth says he obtained a living specimen in Upper Martaban, and
recognised it as the same as what had been obtained in Siam. The Rev.
Mr. Mason writes of it: "This animal, which burrows under old bamboo
roots, resembles a marmot more than a rat; yet it has much of the
rat in its habits. I one night caught a specimen gnawing a cocoa-nut,
while camping out in the jungles."

* * * * *

I may here mention a curious little animal, which is apparently a
link between the MURIDAE and the SPALACIDAE, _Myospalax
fuscocapillus_, named and described by Blyth ('J. A. S. B.' xv. p.
141), found at Quetta, where it is called the "Quetta mole." A full
account of it by Mr. W. T. Blanford is to be found in the 'Journal
Asiatic Society of Bengal,' (vol. L. pt. ii.).

FAMILY DIPODIDAE.

This family contains a form of rodent similar to, yet more pronounced
than, the jerboa rats, of which I have already treated. It includes
the true Jerboas (_Dipus_), the American Jumping Mice (_Zapus_), the
_Alactaga_, and the Cape Jumping Hare (_Pedetes caffer_). The
characteristics of the family are as follows:--

"Incisors compressed; premolars present or absent; grinding teeth
rooted or rootless, not tuberculate, with more or fewer transverse
enamel folds; skull with the brain-case short and broad;
infra-orbital opening rounded, very large (often as large as
the orbit); zygomatic arch slender, curved downwards; the malar
ascending in front to the lachrymal in a flattened perpendicular
plate; facial surface of maxillaries minutely perforated; mastoid
portion of auditory bullae usually greatly developed; metatarsal
bones elongated, often fused into a cannon bone; form gracile; front
portion of body and f