356 TYPES OF ANIMAL LIFE 



is to be found the musk-rat or musquash, the head and 

 body of which are together a foot long. Its feet are 

 webbed, and it lives in lakes and rivers from the Eio 

 Grande to the shores of the Arctic Seas. America also 

 is the home of the elegant little creatures with small 

 cheek -pouches — the vesper mice — such as the deer-mouse 

 the wood-mouse, the golden mouse. These in the West 

 will come and take up their abode in houses. 



Gerbils are elegant creatures with large bright eyes 

 and long tufted tails and very long hind legs, wherewith 

 they can jump in kangaroo fashion. They range over 

 the Old World. In the hamster of the Old AVorld there 

 are large cheek-pouches. 



The voles are Old World creatures, which differ fi'om 

 rats and mice by their blunt muzzle, heavier build and 

 less graceful movements ; also by their smaller eyes and 

 ears, and shorter limbs and tail. An allied form, 

 Hydromys, exists in Australia, New'CTuinea and Tas- 

 mania. 



The lemming of Norway is a sort of vole, very cele- 

 brated on account of its sudden and marvellous migi^ations. 

 When a conjuncture of favourable circumstances enables 

 them to multiply to an enormous extent, a migratory 

 instinct becomes developed in them, whereby they are 

 led to descend to lower-lying lands than those they 

 normally frequent. 



They migrate slowly and intermittently, journeying 

 only by night, and increasing frequently as they go. 

 Their journey may last for three years before they reach 

 the sea coast, according to the route they may happen to 

 have followed. When they reach the coast, they go on 

 into the sea and so perish. As they journey along, they 

 are preyed upon by bears, wolves, foxes, dogs, wild-cats, 

 weasels, eagles, hawks and owls. They are also destroyed 



