. Cassell's natural history. Animals; Animal behavior. NATURAL ElUTOIiY. enamel; the malar bone is short and slender, generally reduced to a mere splint between the maxillary and squamosal processes of the zygomatic arch; the thumb is rudimentary, but often fm-nished with a small nail; and the tail is generally scaly, with a few scattered haii-s, densely hairy only in a few species. As might be expected in so large an assemblage of species, the variety of forms is veiy great among the Muridre, but broadly, the common Eats and Mice, which are only too well known to most of us, may serve as char
. Cassell's natural history. Animals; Animal behavior. NATURAL ElUTOIiY. enamel; the malar bone is short and slender, generally reduced to a mere splint between the maxillary and squamosal processes of the zygomatic arch; the thumb is rudimentary, but often fm-nished with a small nail; and the tail is generally scaly, with a few scattered haii-s, densely hairy only in a few species. As might be expected in so large an assemblage of species, the variety of forms is veiy great among the Muridre, but broadly, the common Eats and Mice, which are only too well known to most of us, may serve as characteristic types of the whole series. The family, however, includes jumping forms, swimming forms, arboreal foi-ms, and bun-owing forms, in which the peculiarities of the life-habits are very distinctly indicated by the external appearance of the creatures. lu their distribution the Muridie are almost absolutely cosmopolitan, the family being represented in. every part of the world, with the sole exception of the islands of the Pacific Ocean. Australia, possesses about thu-ty species of the family. New Zealand, at the time of its discovery, harboured a Eat, known as the Forest Eat, or Maori Eat, which was a favourite article of food with the natives, and is now almost extinct. It was proved by Capt. Hutton to be identical with the Black Eat {Mus rattus), and was probably introduced by the ancestors of the Maoris. Certain species also, such as the common Brown Eat and Mouse, are now perfectly cosmopolitan in their distribution, having accompanied man in all his migrations on the surface of the globe. The Eat and Mouse form the types of a great sub-family, , which have the molars rooted and tuberculate when young, the infra-orbital opening high anil perpendicular, widest above, and the lower root of the zygomatic maxillary process flattened into a perpendicular plate. They possess no cheek- pouches, have the fore and hind limbs approximately equal in length, the thumb rud
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjecta, booksubjectanimals
