Among the numerous other rodents allied to the rat group are the Mole-rats, with short mole-like bodies. The largest is the Great Mole-rat, found in South-eastern Europe, South-western Asia, and North-eastern Africa. It is a subterranean creature, burrowing for food like a mole. The Bamboo-rats have minute eyes, small external ears, and a short tail partly covered with hair. In Somaliland a small, almost naked Sand-rat is found, which burrows in the sand of the desert, throwing up little heaps like mole-hills.
The Gophers.
In North and Central America the Pocket-gophers form a curious group of small rodents with cheek-pouches opening on the outside. They spend their entire existence underground, and are said to use their incisor teeth as picks to open the hard earth in their tunnels. They push the loosened soil out by pressing it with their chests and fore feet. When a gopher has eaten enough to satisfy the immediate calls of hunger, it stores all spare food away in the large cheek-pouches. When gophers desire to empty the pouches, they pass their feet along their cheeks from behind, and press the food forwards on to the ground.
The Jerboas, Springhaas, and Jumping-mice.
The hopping rodents have an immense range, from Southern Europe, through Africa, Arabia, India, and Ceylon, and even in the New World, where the American Jumping-mouse is found throughout the northern part of the continent. The latter is only 3 inches long. The true Jerboas are mainly found in Africa. All these, when excited, move like kangaroos. Their main home is the Central Asian steppe region, but they are found in Egypt, India, Syria, and Arabia. The hind legs are much elongated, the fore legs very small, and the body usually of a sandy colour. The American jumping-mouse, though a very small creature, can cover from 3 to 5 feet at each leap. It inhabits the beech and hard-wood forests. In winter it makes a globular nest about 6 inches under the surface of the ground.
Photo by W. P. Dando] [Regent's Park.
VISCACHA.
The viscacha form colonies like those of the prairie-dogs. It is found on the pampas north of the La Plata.
The Cape Jumping-hare forms a family by itself, with no near allies. It is of a tawny brown colour, becoming almost pure white below.