46 CURIOUS HOMES AKD THEIR TENANTS. 



mothers rear their little families of from two to four 

 jerboas, are made and lined with hair pulled from the 

 breast of the animal. 



In one species rather larger than that described — 

 the alactaga, in Central Asia — the animal employs a 

 stratagem that reminds one of that practiced by the 

 trap-door spider. Like the African jerboa, it lives in 

 a perfect tangle of burrows, ending in a large central 

 chamber, and from this a long passage terminates 

 close to the surface of the ground, quite a distance 

 away from the other burrows. No trace of its exist- 

 ence appears above ground, but let the burrows be 

 invaded, and away their inmates scuttle through this 

 passage, break through to the surface of the ground 

 far away in some place hidden by intervening objects 

 from the scene of disturbance, and make their escape. 



Anything so quaint and odd as the African jerboa 

 is scarcely to be found. They are distinctively two- 

 legged animals, more entirely so than any other mam- 

 mal, monkeys, bears, and kangaroos included, except 

 man ; they never go on all-fours. When they walk 

 they do so by placing one hind foot alternately before 

 the other ; when they run it is done in the same way 

 by hastening their steps, and they might readily be 

 taken at a little distance for small birds. "When they 

 leap they cover such an extraordinary space in pro- 

 portion to their size, and touch the earth so lightly 

 and so rapidly between their jumps, that unless it was 

 known what they really were no one would believe 

 them anything else than small birds skimming along 

 the surface of the ground. 



