128 



NA TURAL HISTOR Y. 



CAPE JUMPING HAKE. 



sepai-ate, the tail bushy, and the hind feet furnished with four toes having broad, hoof like nails. This 

 is a much larger animal than any of the preceding, being about the size of the common Hare, which it 

 also resembles in its colours. The Jumping Hare inhabits a considerable portion of South Africa, 

 extending on the west coast at least as far as Angola. It is abundant at the Cape of Good Hope, 

 both in the mountains and in the plains. Great numbers of the animals often live together, and 

 their burrows, which, like those of other Dipodidse, are inhabited by numerous individuals as a 

 common residence, consist of many-branched galleries made at no great depth from the surface, 

 but leading into a more deeply-seated habitation. They generally go about slowly upon all- 

 fours, but can advance with extraordinary rapidity by Kangaroo-like springs, in each of which, when 

 pressed, they will cover a space of twenty or thirty feet. Their food consists of roots, seeds, and 

 herbage. The female produces three or four young at a birth. 



SECTION III. POECUPINE-LIKE RODENTS (HYSTRICOMORPHA}. 



FAMILY XI. OCTODONTID^E. 



This first family of the Porcupine alliance consists of a number of rat-like animals, nearly 

 all of which are inhabitants of South America, three species only being peculiar to the large 

 West Indian Islands, whilst, singularly enough, four more ai-e known from different parts of the 

 African continent. Except in one of these last, all the members of the family have four molars 

 on each side in each jaw, and the crowns of these teeth show internal and external folds of 

 enamel. The malar portion of the zygomatic arch has an angular process at its lower margin. 



