THE EGYPTIAN JERBOA 1 99 



wide interspace, are large, intelligent, and as 

 beautiful as those of a gazelle. The forelegs are 

 so tiny, and held so closely pressed to the body, 

 as at first sight to appear absent : the hind legs 

 are stilt-like, and terminate in three toes ; the 

 long tail is betasseled with a squarish and flattened 

 tuft of elongated hair. The jerboa is one of the 

 many mammals which suffer at the hands of taxi- 

 dermists, and of artists who do not draw from 

 life ; museum specimens are too often wrongly 

 mounted, the tail being absurdly shown as a limp 

 and useless-looking appendage, instead of possess- 

 ing the beautiful S-shaped curve seen in the living 

 animal. The colour of the Egyptian jerboa is 

 more or less dark fawn above and white below : 

 the tail-tuft is black, with a white tip. A glance 

 at the illustration will show that the Egyptian 

 jerboa — despite its small size — is as extraordinary 

 as any of the rest of the extraordinary animals of 

 Africa — worthy to rank with the giraffe, the 

 okapi, and the aard vark^ as one of Nature's 

 vagaries. 



Jerboas are desert-haunting animals, and 

 make their burrows in sandy or clayey soil. 

 Four longr tunnels convergfe to a central 

 chamber, which serves at once as a refuge and 

 a sleeping apartment, and several individuals 



1 The Aard Vark is an African anteater, fully described in this 

 book. 



