186 



COMMON JERBOA. 



the end, and has no nail : the four other toes, the 

 second outer one of which is the longest, are 

 long, and armed with great hooked nails : the 

 heel is very higli, and the middle of the foot is 

 naked and of a flesh-colour. These fore-feet are 

 of no use to the animal in walking, but serve him 

 only to lay hold of his food, and to carry it to his 

 mouth, as also to dig his subterraneous abode. 

 The hind legs are covered with long hair, fawn- 

 coloured and white : its long feet are almost en- 

 tirely bare, especially on the outside, which must 

 necessarily be the case ; since the animal, whether 

 in motion or at rest, constantly leans oil that part. 

 These feet, so exceedingly long, have each three 

 toes ; the middle one something longer than the 

 other two : they are all provided with nails, which 

 are short, but broad and obtuse : they have also 

 at the heel a kind of spur, or rather a very small 

 rudiment of a fourth toe, which gives the Jerboa 

 of Egypt some resemblance to the Alagtaga of 

 Tartary described by Gmelin in the Petersburg!! 

 Transactions, and which part probably escaped 

 Hasselquist, as well as many others. The toes 

 and the heel are furnished below with long grey 

 hairs tinged with yellow, except that at the origin 

 of the toes, which is of a blackish cast : the nails, 

 both of the fore and hind feet, are of a dirty 

 white. According to Hasselquist the tail of the 

 Jerboa is three times the length of the body ; I 

 never found it, however, much more than half 

 that length : it scarcely exceeds the circumference 

 of a goose-quill, but is of a quadrangular ^nd not 



