CANADIAN JERBOA, 
119 
workmen, in digging* the foundation for a sum-* 
mer-house, in a gentleman’s garden, about two 
miles from Quebec, in the latter end of May, 1787. 
It was discovered enclosed in a ball of clay, about 
the size of a cricket-ball, nearly an inch in thick- 
ness, perfectly smooth within, and about twenty 
inches underground. The man who first discover- 
ed it, not knowing what it was, struck the ball with 
liis spade, by which means it was broken to pieces, 
or it would have been presented to me. How 
long it had been underground it is impossible to 
say ; but as I never could observe these animals 
in any parts of the country after the beginning 
of September, I conceive they lay themselves up 
sometime in that month, or beginning of October, 
when the frost becomes sharp ; nor dill I ever see 
them again before the last week in May or begin- 
ning of June. From their being enveloped ira 
halls of clay, without any appearance of food, 
I conceive they sleep during the winter, and re- 
main for that term without sustenance. As soon 
as I conveyed this specimen to my house, I depo- 
sited it, as it was, in a small chip box, in some cotton, 
waiting with great anxiety for its waking ; hut 
that not taking place at the season they gene- 
rally appear, I kept it until I found it begin to 
smell ; I then stuffed it, and preserved it in its 
torpid position. I am led to believe its not re- 
covering from that state, arose from the heat of 
niy room during the time it was in the box, a fire 
having been constantly burning in the stove, and 
which, in all probability was too great for its res« 
pi ration/' 
This animal, in the last edition of Mr, Pennant’s 
History of Quadrupeds, is referred to the genus 
mus, and is described under the name of the Cana* 
da rat, 
