178 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Jaculus hwJsoniiis, (Baird.) — Jumping Mouse. 



This beautiful and interesting little animal is not uncommon in this 

 State, but it is seldom seen, on account of its nocturnal habits. It is not 

 sufficiently numerous to do great mischief to the farmer, even if the seeds, 

 which constitute the greater part of its food, were valuable, which is not 

 the case. It should hardly, therefore, be included with the field mice in 

 the slaughter they meet with at the hands of the farmer, and which they 

 generally deserve. In escaping from pursuit, the jumping mouse usually 

 progresses rapidly by a series of long jumps, often clearing four or five 

 feet at a leap ; these leaps are made so rapidly, and in such uncertain 

 directions, (usually zig-zag, like the flight of a snipe,) that it is very 

 difficult to catch it. It walks on all fours, like a common mouse, when 

 not alarmed, and often will, in escaping, double on its tracks, and steal 

 away through the grass, crouching close to the ground. This species, 

 when in the woods, digs its burrow usually beneath a stump or log ; this 

 burrow is not very deep or complicated, usually having but one passage. 

 In the fields it builds its nest, sometimes in a tussock of grass, or beneath 

 a stone, or perhaps in a pile of rubbish. It sometimes lays up a winter 

 store of seeds and grains, but it usually hibernates, although not in an 

 entirely torpid state, it being almost always active on being discovered. 



I once, in the winter season, while cutting up a partially decayed 

 stump, found a nest with a pair of these animals ; the nest was made of 

 grass and leaves, there was no store of seeds or grain ; whether or not 

 the shock of the axe splitting the wood awoke them, they were lively, 

 and soon escaped by their long leaps. The jumping mouse is not very pro- 

 lific, bringing forth but three or four at a birth but once or twice a year. 



Description. — Head large, long and pointed ; ears moderate in size, 

 clothed within and without with thin hairs ; eyes small ; whiskers scanty, 

 brown and white ; body slender, largest at the fore shoulders, tapering to 

 the tail ; antei-ior limbs short ; posterior limbs very long ; tail about twice 

 the length of the head and body, cylindrical, tapering gently to the tip, 

 and covered with scales, with short, thin hairs springing between them. 

 Color : above the head, neck and body, yellowish bixjwn, with numerous 

 black tipped hairs ; sides of the head, neck and body yellowish, with 

 black hairs extending beyond the fur ; the upper lip, and beneath the 

 head, neck, body, and between the legs, white ; feet, and beneath the 

 tail, dirty white ; above the tail, grayish-brown. 



DIMENSIONS. 



Length of head, from § of an inch to 1|^ inches. 

 Length of head and body, 2^ to 3 inches. 

 Length of tail, without the hairs at the tip, 6\ to 5^ inches. 

 Length of tail, with the hairs at the tip, 5^ to 6 inches. 



