Photo by A. S. Rudland & Sons.
LONG-EARED JERBOA.
These curious little animals are mainly desert creatures. They move by a series of leaps.
Among the South American members of the group to which the hamster belongs are the Fish-eating Rats, with webbed hind feet. The Rice-rat, which is found from the United States to Ecuador, lives on the Texas prairies much as do the prairie-marmots, though its burrows are not so extensive, and often quite shallow. In these the rats make beds of dry grass.
Photo by A. S. Rudland & Sons.
CAPE JUMPING-HARE.
This animal is very common in South Africa. The Boers call it the "Springhaas."
The Voles.
The Voles are allied to the preceding groups, but are marked externally by a shorter and heavier form than the typical rats and mice. Their ears are shorter, their noses blunter, their eyes smaller, and the tail generally shorter. They are found in great numbers at certain seasons, when they often develop into a pest. The Short-tailed Field-vole is responsible for much destruction of crops in Europe. One of the latest plagues of these animals took place in the Lowlands of Scotland, where these voles devoured all the higher pastures on the hills. Nearly at the same time a similar plague occurred in Turkish Epirus. When an English commissioner was sent to enquire into the remedies (if any existed) there in use, he found that the Turks were importing holy water from Mecca to sprinkle on the fields affected. The Bank-vole is a small English species, replaced on the Continent by the Southern Field-vole.