272 MAMMALIA. GLIRES. Dormoufc. 



586 4. Common Dormoufe.— 4. Myoxus Mufcardinus, 4. 



Of a tawny red colour, with a whitifh throat; the thumbs or inner toes of the hind 

 feet having no claws. Schreber, iv. t. ccxxvii. 



Sciurus avellanarius, or Filbert Squirrel. Erxleb. mam. 43.3. n. 16. — Mur avellanarius, or Fil- 

 bert Moufe, of a reddifh colour with a whitifh throat, having a long hairy tail, and the inner toes 

 of the hind feet without claws. Syft. nat. ed. xii. i. 83. n. 14. Faun. Suec. 35. Pallas, Glir. 89. 

 n. 34. — Mus avellanarum minor, or Leffer Filbert Moufe. Raj. quad. 220. Jonft. quad. 168. 

 Aldrov. dig. 439. — Mufcardin, Dormoufe, or Sleeper. Sm. Buff. iv. 336. pi. xcv. Edw. av. t. 266. 

 Penn. Synopf. n 219. Lever. Muf. Brit. zool. i. 95. — Common Dormoufe. Penn. hift. of quad. 

 n. 289. Arc~h zool. n. 55. 



Inhabits Europe. — Lives in thick hedges, woods, and copfes, making its neft of mofs, -grafs, or 

 leaves, in the hollow of a low tree, or near the bottom of a thick bufh ; it forms magazines of nuts, 

 and feldom goes into gardens, or far from its retreat ; at the approach of winter it retires, and be- 

 comes torpid till fummer, but fometimes revives in a warm day, takes a little food, and relapfes again. 

 It is about the fize of a Moufe, but plumper, being about three inches long, and the tail, which is fur- 

 rounded with fhort hairs and bufhy at the end, is two inches and a half long ; the ears are fhort, 

 round, thin, and naked ; the eyes are large, black, and prominent. It fits up on its hind legs when 

 eating, ufing its fore paws to carry its food, and conceals What it cannot ufe; the female brings three 

 «r four young ones at a birth. 



XXX. J E R B O A..- 29. D I P U S. 26. 



Has two fore-teeth in each jaw. The fore legs are very fhort* 

 and the hind legs exceffively long. The tail is long, and is 

 tufted at the end. 



The remarkable -characteriftic of this genus is the enormous length of the bind feet, and extreme 

 fhortnefs of the fore paws ; from this conformation, inftead of walking or running on all fours, they 

 leap, or hop, on the hind feet like birds, making prodigious bounds, and only ufe the fore paws for 

 burrowing, or for carrying their food to the mouth, like Squirrels. From this peculiarity of confor- 

 mation the Kanguru, G. xix. fp. 15. and Phillip's Opoffum, fp. 16. of the fame genus, ought to have 

 been arranged with this genus of the Jerboa, but, from a rigid adherence to artificial fyftem, they are 

 by Dr Gmelin ranked with the genus Opoffum, on account of the number and arrangement of their 

 teeth. 



587 I. Common Jerboa. — 1. Dlpus jacirfus. 1. 



Has four toes on all the feet, and a claw in place of a thumb, or fifth toe, on each fore 



foot. Schreber, iv. t. ccxxviii. 



Mus 



