£26 
DORMOUSE. 
54. STRIFED. 
STRIPED DORM OU SE, 
HIST. QUAD. Genus XXXI. 
Ground Squirrel, Hif. Quad. N° 286.—Swmellie, v. 329.—Lev. Mus, 
ORMOUSE. With naked rounded ears: the eyes full and 
black; about them a whitifh fpace: the head, body, and tail, 
of a reddifh brown, deepeft on the laft: from neck to tail a black 
line extends along the top of the back: on each fide run two others, 
parallel to the former, including between them another of a yellow- 
ifh white: breaft and belly white: the toes almoft naked, and of a 
flefh-color ; long, flender, and very diftinét ; four, with the rudiment 
of a fifth, on the fore feet; five perfect toes on the hind. 
The length is about five inches and a half; of the tail, to the end 
of the hairs, rather longer. 
Inhabits all parts of North America, I think, from Hudjon’s Bay to 
Louifiana ; certainly from Canada, where the French call them Les 
Suiffes, from their fkins being rayed with black and white, like the 
breeches of the Switzers who form the Pope’s guard *, 
They are extremely numerous: live in woods, yet never run up 
trees, except when purfued, and find no other means of efcape. They 
live under ground, burrow, and form their habitations with two en- 
trances, that they may fecure a retreat through the one, in cafe the 
other fhould be ftepped. Thefe little animals form their fubterra- 
neous dwellings with great fkill, working them into the form of long 
galleries, with branches on each fide, every one terminating in an 
enlarged apartment, in which they hoard their ftock of winter pro- 
vifiont. Their acorns are lodged in one, in a fecond the mayz, in 
a third the hickery-nuts, and in the laft their moft favorite food, 
* Charlevoix, Vv. 198. + Kalu, i, 322. 325+ 
the 
