2^6 TRAVELS IN UPPER 



The opinion which affirms that the jerbo and the 

 alagtaga of Gmelin are but one single and the same 

 species, has been adopted by the judicious M. Al- 

 lamand, one of the foreign naturalists on whom 

 BufFon set the highest value. In giving his details 

 relative to a gerboise sent from Tunis to M. Klok- 

 ner, and after having said that it was of the same 

 race with the jerbo of BufFon, the Dutch professor 

 adds : 7/ (the jerbo) forms a genus apart, and that a 

 very singular one, with I lie alagtaga, of which M, 

 Gmelin has given us the description and the figure, hut 

 which approaches so nearly to our jerbo, that it is im- 

 possible not to consider it, with M. de Bufifon, as a va- 

 riety of the same species *. On the other hand, Buf- 

 fon, who, in describing at first the jerbo after Ed- 

 wards and Hasselquitz, had made only one species 

 of it with the alagtaga of Gmelin -j-, has persisted 

 (that is his expression) in not separating them in his 

 Supplement to the natural History of four-footed 

 Animals, and no one, Sir, is better qualified than 

 yourself to appreciate the weight of the opinion of 

 the French naturalist, when, not disdaining to dart 

 the glance of genius on a discussion rather of words 

 than of facts, and after having weighed the more 

 recent authorities to which you yourself appeal, 

 he finds himself confirmed in his first sentiment. 



* BufFon, Suppl. to Nat. Hist, of Quadrup. Add. of the 

 Dutch Editor (M. Allamand), art. Gerboise or Jerbo. 

 f Nat. Hist, of Quadrupeds, art. Gerboises. 



As 



