30 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF MAMMALIA. 



nental Europe, and indeed it is found as high north as 

 Poland and Prussia. In France it is very common, gardens 

 and orchards being its favourite abode; it makes sad havoc 

 among wall-fruits, attacking peaches, apricots, pears, 

 &c. with great avidity. (Fig. 15.) Its winter store, 

 however, consists of nuts, peas, beans, and the like, 

 which are collected in great abundance, and stowed 

 away in some convenient recess, where eight or ten in- 

 dividuals assemble to pass away the colder season in 

 sleep. The summer nest of the lerot, in which it rears 

 its young, is built in the holes of walls or the chinks of 

 aged trees. The young are four or five in number. 

 The colour of this pretty but annoying creature is reddish 

 gray ; beneath, white; a black patch surrounds the eye, 

 and spreads behind the ear. The tail is covered with 

 short black hair, except at the end, which is tufted 

 with white. Length of head and body four inches and 

 a half; of the tail, four inches. 



The Cape Graphiure {Graphiurus Capejisis). 



The genus Graphiurus is scarcely to be separated from 

 Myoxiis ; it is rei)resented by the Cape Graphiure, a 

 native of South Africa. This species is about the size 

 of the lerot, which it much resembles in the style of 

 its colouring, the general tint above being of a deep 

 brownisli gray ; the muzzle and sides of the face reddish 

 white; under parts grayish white, with a tinge of red; 

 tail brown, the tip, which is not tufted, reddish white; 

 a band of blackish brown extends from the eyes to the 

 base of the ears. (Fig. 16.) 



THE JERBOAS {Dipus). 



The Jerboas constitute a group of the great murine 

 section of Rodents, and termed by Mr. Waterhouse 

 Dipodidce^ of which, he observes, the genera Dipus, 

 Alacfaga, and Merioncs are examples. 



All the animals of this tribe are remarkable for the 

 shortness of the fore-limbs, the development of the 

 hinder limbs, and the length and slenderness of the 



