The Spalacidæ, or mole-rats, have a straggling distribution over the Old World continents. They are found over nearly the whole of Africa, but only in the South-east of Europe, and West of Temperate Asia, but appearing again in North India, Malacca, and South China. Ellobius (1 sp.), is found in South Russia and South-west Siberia; Spalax (1 sp.), Southern Russia, West Asia, Hungary, Moldavia, and Greece (Plate II., vol. i. p. 218); Rhizomys (6 sp.), Abyssinia, North India, Malacca, South China; Heterocephalus (1 sp.), Abyssinia; Bathyerges (= Orycterus 1 sp.), South Africa; Georychus (6 sp.), South, Central, and East Africa; Heliophobus (1 sp.), Mozambique.
Family 57.—DIPODIDÆ. (3 Genera, 22 Species.)
| General Distribution. | |||||
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| Neotropical Sub-regions. | Nearctic Sub-regions. | Palæarctic Sub-regions. | Ethiopian Sub-regions. | Oriental Sub-regions. | Australian Sub-regions. |
| — — — — | 1. 2. 3. 4 | — 2. 3. 4 | 1. 2. 3 — | — — — — | — — — — |
The Jerboas, or jumping mice, are especially characteristic of the regions about the eastern extremity of the Mediterranean, being found in South Russia, the Caspian district, Arabia, Egypt, and Abyssinia; but they also extend over a large part of Africa, and eastward to India; while isolated forms occur in North America, and the Cape of Good Hope. Dipus = Gerbillus (20 sp.), inhabits North and Central Africa, South-East Europe, and across Temperate Asia to North China, also Afghanistan, India, and Ceylon; Pedetes (1 sp.), South Africa to Mozambique and Angola; Jaculus = Meriones (1 sp.), North America, from Nova Scotia and Canada, south to Pennsylvania and west to California and British Columbia (Plate XX., vol. ii. p. [135]).
Extinct Dipodidæ.—Dipus occurs fossil in the Miocene of the Alps; and an extinct genus, Issiodromys, said to be allied to Pedetes of the Cape of Good Hope, is from the Pliocene formations of Auvergne in France.
Family 58.—MYOXIDÆ. (1 Genus, 12 Species.)
| General Distribution. | |||||
| |||||
| Neotropical Sub-regions. | Nearctic Sub-regions. | Palæarctic Sub-regions. | Ethiopian Sub-regions. | Oriental Sub-regions. | Australian Sub-regions. |
| — — — — | — — — — | 1. 2. 3. 4 | 1. 2. 3 — | — — — — | — — — — |
The Dormice (Myoxus), are small rodents found over all the temperate parts of the Palæarctic region, from Britain to Japan; and also over most parts of Africa to the Cape, but wanting in India. Some of the African species have been separated under the name of Graphidurus, while those of Europe and Asia form the sub-genera Glis, Muscardinus, and Eliomys.
Extinct Myoxidæ.—Myoxus ranges from the Post-pliocene of the Maltese caverns to the Miocene of Switzerland and the Upper Eocene of France; and an extinct genus Brachymys is found in the Miocene of Central Europe.
Family 59.—SACCOMYIDÆ. (6 Genera, 33 Species.)