ORDER RODENTIA. 159 



The Gerbillus of Canada, Canadian Gerbo of Shaw, and 

 Mus Canadensis of Pennant, was discovered in the environs 

 of Quebec, by Mr. Thomas Davies. It has been figured in 

 the fourth volume of the Transactions of the Linnean Society. 

 It is about the size of a Mouse ; its head is small, and 

 shaped like that of a Rat. The ears are very short, and not 

 elevated like those of the Gerboas. The upper jaw is fur- 

 nished with long mustachios ; the fore-paws are propor- 

 tioned to the size of the animal ; it has four toes, armed 

 with crooked nails ; the posterior extremities are very long, 

 and terminated by five toes of nearly equal length, and 

 armed with claws like the fore-paws ; the tail is longer 

 than the body, almost naked, having but a few scattered 

 hairs at intervals, and no terminating tuft. 



This quadruped is found in the meadows and thickets. 

 When surprised, it attempts to escape by leaping with great 

 vigour to distances very considerable for so small an animal. 

 In the winter it retires ahd falls asleep, rolled up like a 

 ball, in a burrow about twenty inches deep. It places itself 

 then in a sort of little chamber, of an oval form, and never 

 stirs until the middle of spring. No provision is found in 

 this retreat, nor is it exactly known on what substances it 

 feeds. 



Another species is the Gerbillus Soricinus, very imper- 

 fectly known. Its tail is said to be shorter than the body ; 

 the latter is a grey-brown in the upper parts ; the sides are 

 marked with a red longitudinal streak ; the ears are almost 

 naked, and oval ; the tail is covered with silken hairs, and 

 of a gray-brown underneath. 



It is a native of North America, but its mode of living is 

 entirely unknown. 



We ought, perhaps, more methodically to have noticed at 

 the end of the Rats, properly speaking, a new genus of 

 Glires, proposed by Messrs. Say and Ord, in the Journal 



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