SPECIES OF MAMMALS OF THE PACIFIC AREA 121 



islands is even more remarkable than that of the bat (^Lasiurus) 

 found there. 



Jumping Mice and Their Allies. Family Zapodid^ 

 The Striped Tree Mouse or Birch Mouse (Sicista), rang- 

 ing from Norway and Hungary to eastern Siberia, is found on 

 Sakhalin Island. It looks more like the true mice than its rela- 

 tives the North American jumping mice. As in the latter, the 

 cheek-teeth are four above, three below, and the forward open- 

 ing from the bony eye-socket is large and rounded, rather than 

 constricted and slit-like. The striped tree mouse is yellowish 

 brown above, yellowish white below; a black stripe runs down 

 the middle of the back from the crown to the tail. The total 

 length is five and one-fourth to six inches, of which the tail is 

 three to three and one-half inches. The striped mouse lives in 

 open birch woods as a rule, and feeds on seeds. It sleeps through 

 the winter in cold climates in a nest built in a hollow tree or 

 protected place. 



Old World Porcupines. Family Hystricid^ 



Although they are thought to be related to the American 

 "quill-pigs," the porcupines of southern Europe, Africa, and 

 Asia differ much from them. They do not climb trees, and they 

 have hollow quills on the tail which are long and firmly attached 

 to the skin and which rattle when they are alarmed. Porcupines 

 are represented in the Greater Sunda Islands by three genera. 

 The meat of all is good to eat and tastes somewhat like pork. 



Old World Porcupines {Hystrix) occur on the larger is- 

 lands from Sumatra to Sumbawa (and possibly Flores). They 

 are about twenty-seven inches in total length ; the tail occupies 

 about five inches of this, excluding the quills. The animals 

 weigh about eighteen pounds. The head and shoulders are cov- 

 ered with short spines but from the back and rump arise larger 

 stouter quills, six or eight inches long, banded with black and 

 white. Even longer, but thin flexible quills project beyond this 



