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122 APPENDIX. 



vel, for in that chiefly it burrows, dividing its hole below 

 into many manfions. It feems to be apprehenfive of the 

 falling in of the ground ; it therefore generally digs its hole 

 under the root of fome fpurge, thyme, or abfinthium, upon 

 whofe root it feems to depend for its roof not falling in and 

 burying it in the ruins of its fubterraneous habitation. It 

 feems to delight moil in thofe places that are haunted by 

 the ceraftes, or horned viper. Nature has certainly impofed 

 this dangerous neighbourhood upon the one for the good 

 and advantage of the other, and that of mankind in general. 

 Of the many, trials I made, I never found a Jerboa in the 

 body of a viper, excepting once in that of a female big with 

 young, and the Jerboa itfelf was then nearly confumed. 



The Jerboa, for the moll part, Hands upon his hind-legs ; 

 he refls himfelf by fitting backwards fometimes, and I have 

 feen him, though rarely, as it were lie upon all four ; whe- 

 ther that is from fatigue or ficknefs, or whether it is a na- 

 tural pofture, I know not. The Jerboa of the Cyrenaicum 

 is fix inches and a quarter in length, as he Hands in the 

 drawing. He would be full half an inch more if he was 

 laid ftraight at his length immediately after death. The 

 head, from his nofe to the occiput, is one inch two line?. 

 From, the nofe to the foremoft angle of the eye, fix lines. 

 The opening of the eye itfelf is two lines and a quarter ; 

 his ears three quarters of an, inch in length, and a quarter 

 of an inch in breadth ; they are fmooth, and have no hair 

 within, and but very little without; of an equal breadth 

 from bottom to top, do not diminifh to a point, but are 

 rounded there. The buttocks are marked with a femi cir- 

 cle of black, which parts from the root of the tail, and ends 

 at the top of the thigh. This gives it the air of a compound 



4 animal, 



