68 YAIK, AND ASTRICAN MOUSE, 
will hang by his nose in such a manner, that it is 
difficult to disengage them. They make a noise 
like the barking of a dog. In some seasons they 
are so numerous as to occasion a dearth of 
corn, and on that account are proscribed. But 
polecats are their greatest enemies, for they pur- 
sue them into their holes, and destroy numbers. 
It is remarkable, that the hair sticks so close to the 
skin, as not to be plucked off but with the utmost 
difficulty. 
V' 
Yaik. 
The Yaik has a thick snout, a blunt nose, and 
very tieshy lips ; its upper lip is divided ; its 
upper fore teeth are small, yellow, convex, and 
truncated ; the low’er slender and pointed ; its eyes 
are large ; its naked ears stand up high above its 
fur ; its tail is short and cylindrical ; its face is 
white ; its body, four inches long, is of a cine- 
reous yellow, mixed with brown above, below of 
a hairy whiteness. It inhabits the deserts of Siberia, 
about the Yaik, quits its burrow, and runs about 
during the night. 
Astrican mouse. 
The Astrican mouse has its forehead much ele- 
vated ; the edges of its eye-lids are black ; its cars 
are naked and oval, standing far out of the fur ; it 
is of a hoary ash-colour, with dusky hairs above ; 
its sides whitish ; the under side of the body, 
and the extremities of its limbs, are of a snowy 
whiteness ; it is about three inches and a half Iong' r 
and inhabits the deserts of Astracan, and the 
Hyrcanian mountains. About the Persian villages 
in Hyrcania, it commits great ravages among the 
vice* It docs not grow torpid during the winter. 
