THE EGYPTIAN JERBOA 199 



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 1 as one of Nature's 

 vagaries. 



Jerboas are desert-haunting animals, and 

 make their burrows in sandy or clayey soil. 

 Four long tunnels converge to a central 

 chamber, which serves at once as a refuge and 

 a sleeping apartment, and several individuals 



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

 book. 



