134 



DIPODHXE. MAMMALIA. MURIDJ-:. 



son, it is a sly and timid animal, living in societies, 

 and constructing burrows underground ; and is with 

 difficulty preserved in a state of domestication. Some 



naturalists consider this species as identical with the 

 variety found inhabiting the waste country between the 

 Don and Wolga rivers, and in the southern steppes at 



Fig. 45. 



The ./Egyptian Jerboa (Dipus -^Egyptian). 



the Irtitsch ; but the limits of our space prevent our 

 discussing this question or giving further details. The 

 accompanying drawing (fig. 45) represents the Jerboa 

 about to take a leap. 



MITCHELL'S JERBOA (Dipus MUchellii) has been 

 so named by Mr. Ogilby after the original discoverer, 

 Sir Thomas Mitchell, who found this species on the 

 marshy grounds near the junction of the Murray and 

 the Murrumbidgee, on the northern boundaries of 

 Australia Felix. In size it scarcely exceeds our com- 

 mon field mouse. The tail is particularly long, and 

 ends in a hairy tuft, two niches in extent. 



HAEDWICKE'S JERBOA (Dipus Indicus), is a native 

 of Hindostan, frequenting the cultivated districts, and 

 proving highly destructive to the wheat and barley 

 crops. It feeds principally on gram, but will in times 

 of scarcity consume other kinds of vegetable food. 

 During its leaps, which extend over a space of four or 

 five yards at a single jump, the tail is stretched out 

 horizontally. At evening time hundreds issue forth 

 from their snug retreats, but they disappear on the 

 slightest alarm. 



THE CAPE JERBOA (Hdamys Capensis)?\&ie 14, 

 fig. 46 is a native of South Africa. The hind feet 

 are tetradactylous, and armed with very long, sharply- 

 pointed claws. The ears are largely developed ; so is 

 also the tail. The molar teeth have no roots ; their 

 crowns also are divided into two equal, oval-shaped 

 portions, by a fold from the outer side in the upper 

 series, and from the inner side below. The fur is of 

 a bright yellow-brown colour generally. The Cape 

 Jerboa is a very powerful animal, leaping as much as 

 thirty feet at a single bound. During sleep it assumes 

 a sitting posture. 



THE ALAX-DAARGHA (Sdrtetes jaculus) is the name 

 given by the Mongols to a species of jerboa inhabiting 

 the steppes between the Donau and the Don; this 

 animal is also found in the Crimea. The feet are 

 pentadactylous, but the three central toes of the hinder 

 extremity are very cogently developed. The molar 



teeth are rooted, and have their crowns surmounted by 

 contorted ridges of enamel. The ears are fully as long 

 as the head. 



FAMILY IV. MURHLE. 



The Rats and Mice, properly so called, have largely- 

 developed ears. The clavicies are distinct. There are 

 usually twelve molar teeth, uniformly covered with 

 enamel ; and the inferior incisors are compressed and 

 sharply pointed. The fore-feet are tetradactylous, the 

 several digits wide-spread, and the thumb represented 

 by a warty tubercle, which in some cases is clawed ; 

 the hind feet are pentadactylous. The skeleton 

 Plate 33, fig. 106 is comparatively slim throughout. 

 The tail is mostly very long, naked, or only thinly 

 haired. The species are extremely numerous, and 

 abound everywhere. 



THE COMMON MOUSE (Mus musculus] is almost 

 too well known to' require more than a passing notice. 

 The fur exhibits an ashy-brown colour, which becomes 

 lighter underneath the belly. Its ears are about half 

 as long as the head ; the tail being rather shorter than 

 the body. This elegant little animal is extraordinarily 

 prolific, the female breeding at all seasons of the year, 

 and usually producing five or six young at a birth. 

 White varieties are very common. 



Speaking of the methods adopted for destroying these 

 pests, Mr. Bell remarks as follows : " In addition to 

 the usual means employed for then- extermination, such 

 as traps of various kinds, and the carnivorous instinct 

 of the cat, the ferret, and the weasel, there still exists 

 in Wales a custom so disgustingly cruel that the very 

 mention of it would be scarcely pardonable but for the 

 possibility of thus producing some degree of shame in 

 the perpetrators of it, and consequently saving some 

 poor little mice from being the victims of such barbarity. 

 It is customary in some parts of Wales to roast a mouse 

 alive, hanging it before the fire by its tail tied to a string, 

 that its screams may scare the rest from the house." 



