SPRING HAAS.—Hélamys Capensis. 
Like the kangaroos, the Spring Haas prefers rough and rocky ground to a smooth soil, 
and displays such wonderful agility as it leaps from spot to spot, that it can baffle almost 
any foe by its mere power of jumping. At a single leap this creature will compass a 
space of twenty or thirty feet, and will continue these extraordinary bounds for a great 
distance. It is rather a mischievous animal, as, like the common hare, it is in the habit 
of making nocturnal raids upon the corn-fields and gardens, and escaping safely to its 
subterranean burrow before the sunrise. 
With the exception of shorter ears, and the elongated hinder limbs, the Spring Haas 
is not unlike our common hare. The fur is of a dark fawn, or reddish-brown, perceptibly 
tinged with yellow on the upper parts, and fading into greyish-white beneath. In texture 
it is very similar to that of the hare. The tail is about as long as the body, and is heavily 
covered with rather stiff hairs, which at the extremity are of a deep black hue. Upon 
the fore-legs there are five toes, which are armed with powerful claws, by means of which 
the animal digs its burrows, while the hinder feet are only furnished with four toes, each 
of which is tipped with a long and rather sharply pointed claw. 
THE Jerbdide find their best type in the common GERBOA of Northern Africa. 
This beautiful and active little animal is hardly larger than an ordinary English rat, 
although its peculiar attitudes and its extremely long tail give it an appearance of 
greater dimensions than it really possesses. The general colour of its fur is a light dun, 
washed with yellow, the abdomen being nearly white. The tail is of very great 
proportionate length, is cylindrical in shape, and tufted at its extremity with stiff black 
hairs, the extreme tip being white. From various experiments that have been made upon 
this member and its use to the animal, it appears that the tail is of infinite service in 
preserving the proper balance of the body while the creature is flying through mid-air in 
its extraordinary leaps; for in proportion as the tail was shortened, the power of leaping 
diminished, and when it was entirely removed, the animal was afraid to leap at all. Such 
truncated specimens were almost deprived of all power of locomotion, for they could 
never preserve their balance as they rose upon their hinder feet, but rolled over on their 
backs. As the Gerboa rises from one of its huge bounds for the purpose of commencing 
