CAPE JERBOA. 189 



than the lower. The general colour of the ani- 

 mal is a pale ferruginous above, and pale ash- 

 colour beneath. The nose is black and bare to 

 some little distance up the front : the ears large : 

 the whiskers long and black : the tail is of the same 

 colour with the body for about half its length ; 

 the remainder blackish, and extremely villous or 

 full of hair. It is an animal of great strength 

 and activity^ and will spring to the distance of 

 twenty or thirty feet at once. When eating, it 

 sits upright in the manner of a squirrel. It bur- 

 rows in- the ground, like the smaller kind of Jer- 

 boas, with great ease and expedition ; having 

 very strong and long claws, five in number, on the 

 fore feet : those on the hind feet are rather short, 

 and are four in number. 



This animal is among the late accessions to Na- 

 tural History. It seems to have been first figured 

 in the miscellaneous plates of Mr. Millar. A 

 figure also occurs in the sixth supplemental vo- 

 lume of the Count de BulFon's History of Qua- 

 drupeds. It is called by the Dutch colonists, at 

 the Cape, by the name of Spi^ingen Haas or Jump- 

 ing Hare, 



