EURYOTIS BRANTSII. 
furnished with a slender pencil of long rigid hairs. The general covering of 
the animal is of two descriptions — the one, the predominant, a slightly rigid 
hair, the other a woolly fur, which is thinly disposed among the former, and 
from being shorter is concealed by it. The hairy portion is strong, recum- 
bent, and much longer on the back and sides than on the head and extre- 
mities. 
DIMENSIONS. 
Inches. Lines. 
Length from the point of the nose 
to the tip of the tail 10 6 
of the tail 3 9 
Distance between the tip of the nose 
and the eye 0 10 
Inches. Lines. 
Distance between the eye and the ear 0 10 
Length of the hind-legs 2 7 
fore-legs 1 3^ 
tarsus of hind-legs 1 3i 
Height of the animal when standing. . 2 9 
The female is a little smaller than the male, and her colours are lighter and 
less variegated. In many the colour of the upper parts is pale but clear 
sienna-yellow faintly pencilled with brown, and the lateral and under parts 
intermediate between cream-yellow and greyish white. 
This species is an inhabitant of the interior districts of South Africa, and is never found 
towards Cape Town, nor in situations resorted to by either of the others described, though both 
of them extend as far north as the country in which it abounds. It resorts to open arid 
plains, and is very common in certain places towards the mouth ofthe Orange River. It lives in 
burrows under ground, and these are always formed in situations where neither grass nor shrubs 
exist upon the surface ; and, as many individuals are always congregated, the number of holes 
by which the subterranean abodes are reached is generally great and they are closely set toge- 
ther. In these underground retreats they seek their safety when alarmed, as well as their repose 
during the night, and in them the females also produce their young. During the daytime, if 
not employed in search of food, most of the inhabitants of these burrows are generally to be 
seen, sitting on their hind-legs, upon the edges of their holes, basking in the sun; and so great 
is their love of heat, that the utmost pains is taken to enjoy, in every possible way, the full 
influence of the sun’s rays. They are extremely watchful, and from their effecting a retreat 
with great rapidity, it becomes very difficult to shoot them, which if practicable, is the way in 
which they are to be procured with least actual labour. To dig them out is a process of great 
toil, as the burrows, though not in general very deep, are so long, so branched, and so connected 
with each other, that an area of many yards will sometimes be turned over, and even then pos- 
sibly not a specimen be obtained. In their marked disposition to congregate, they differ both 
from E. irroratus and E. unisulcatus, but particularly from the latter, more than two of which 
are never found inhabiting the same spot, though many others may be distributed over the 
neighbourhood. For the characters by which this species is to be distinguished from E. irro- 
ratus, see the remarks on that species, and Plate XXV. 
