32 ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. 
description of Linnaeus and our specimens, which are 
intermediate in size between the Common Rat and 
Common Mouse, while Linnaeus describes his to have 
been smaller even than the latter. But this dilFerence 
may easily be accounted for on the supposition that he 
had seen none but very young individuals ; which is in 
some degree strengthened by his adding that they were 
occasionally marked by a scarcely perceptible line 
between the lateral stripes ; a circumstance which not 
unfrequently occurs in the young of striped animals. 
Slight vestiges of this original marking are still visible 
in the individuals now before us. In every other respect 
the coincidence is complete. 
The specimens from which our figures were taken 
formed part of a nest of five, three of which, having 
survived the passage from Barbary to England, came 
into the possession of Lord Colchester, by whom they 
were presented to the Society in the spring of 1828. 
One of them has since died. The remaining two still 
continue healthy and lively ; and, with reference to the 
habits of the genus, are moderately tame, although shy 
and timid. 
