The Animal World, A Book of Natural History Part 19

Jerboas are very common in Egypt and other parts of North Africa, and live in burrows which they dig in the sandy soil. In order to enable them to obtain a firm foothold on the slippery sand, the soles of their feet are covered with long hairs, which also prevent them from being scorched by contact with the heated ground. But as a rule they do not come out of their burrows until the evening, when the sun is not so powerful as it is during the middle of the day. They feed upon gra.s.ses and dry shrubs; but how they find enough to eat in the desert places in which they live is rather hard to understand.

Many different kinds of jerboas are known. The best known, the common jerboa, is about as big as a small rat, and has a tail about eight inches long. In color it is so much like the sand that from a few yards away it is almost impossible to see it, even when it is skipping about.

THE HAMSTER

This is a queer little rodent which is found very plentifully in Germany, and also in many districts between that country and Siberia. It is a rather stoutly built animal, and measures nearly a foot in length including the tail, which is about two inches long. In color it is generally light brownish yellow above and black beneath, with a black stripe on the forehead, a yellow patch on the back, and white feet. But hamsters are by no means all alike, and some are entirely black, some pied, and some entirely white.

You remember how dormice make summer and winter nests. In the same way, European hamsters make summer and winter burrows. The summer burrow is quite a small one, not more than a foot or two deep, with a small sleeping-chamber at the bottom. But the winter one is very much larger, for it is not only six feet long at least, with quite a big sleeping-chamber, but there are from one to five side chambers as well, which are used as granaries. In these the animal stores up vast quant.i.ties of grain, peas, and beans, as many as sixty pounds of corn having been taken from the burrow of a single hamster, and a hundredweight of beans from that of another. About the middle of October it stops up the entrances to its home, and pa.s.ses into a state of hibernation, in which it remains till the beginning of March. For about a month longer it still remains in its burrow, feeding on its stores and provisions, till early in April it resumes its active life, and returns to its summer habitation.

Of course hamsters are terribly destructive in cultivated land, and large numbers are destroyed every year. In one district alone nearly a hundred thousand have been killed in a single season, while an enormous quant.i.ty of grain was recovered from their tunnels.

WATER-VOLES

If you walk along the bank of a stream in some European country, you may often hear a splash, and see a brownish animal about eight inches long swimming away through the water. This is a water-vole, often called water-rat, although it belongs to quite a different family from that of the true rats. And if one looks down the side of the bank he will see its burrow, which generally runs into the ground for some little distance.

Water-voles are usually supposed to be mischievous; but during the greater part of the year they feed only on water-plants, being specially fond of the sweet pith of the wild flags. In winter, however, when food of this kind is scarce, they will nibble away the bark of small trees and shrubs, and sometimes do a good deal of damage in osier-beds, while they will also visit cultivated fields in order to feed on vegetables.

The water-vole is a very good swimmer, although its toes are not webbed, and its fur is so close and so glossy that it throws off the water just like the feathers on a duck's back.

A near relation of the water-vole is the field-vole, or field-mouse, also called meadow-mouse, which is found very commonly in most parts of Europe, and also in North and South America. It is about as big as an ordinary mouse, and is grayish brown in color, which becomes rather paler on the lower parts of the body.

This animal is found chiefly in meadows, where it makes long runs beneath the gra.s.s, and also burrows into the ground. It is always plentiful, and sometimes appears in such vast numbers that it can only be described as a plague.

The muskrat, which is one of the most widely distributed and important of American fur-bearing animals, is really a a sort of big aquatic vole.

LEMMINGS

Still more mischievous, in Norway and Sweden, are the odd little rodents known as lemmings, which make their appearance from time to time literally in millions. They always seem to come down from the mountains, and when once they have begun their journey nothing will stop them. If they come to a river they swim across it; if to a house, they climb over it; if to a stack of corn or hay, they eat their way through it. Large numbers of wolves, foxes, weasels, stoats, hawks, and owls soon discover the swarm, and kill off the animals in thousands; but still the great army moves steadily on, leaving the country perfectly bare behind it, until it reaches the sea. And then those behind push on those in front, till almost the whole vast host perish in the waves.

These great migrations take place, as a rule, about once in seven years, and no one seems to know quite where the lemmings come from, or why they travel in this singular manner.

These strange little animals do not seem to know what fear is, for if a pa.s.ser-by happens to meet one of them it will never turn aside, but will sit up and yelp defiantly at him, while if a dog goes up and examines it, the chances are that it will try to bite his nose!

In color the European lemming is blackish brown above and yellowish white below, while its length is about six inches.

Various kinds of rodents known as lemmings are found in North America.

The Hudson Bay lemming has a thick, warm fur. Eskimo children use lemming-skins to make clothes for their dolls.

RATS

The brown rat and the black rat, of course, are only too common everywhere. They seem to have come in the first place from Asia, and have spread to almost all parts of the world. For almost every ship that sails the sea is infested with rats, some of which are nearly certain to make their way ash.o.r.e at every port at which she touches.

Rats are rather formidable animals, for besides being very savage, a number of them will often combine together in order to attack a common foe. We have known a large cat, for example, to be so severely wounded by rats, that after lying in great pain for two or three days it actually died of its injuries. Rats are very bloodthirsty creatures, for if one of their own number is caught in a trap, they will tear it in pieces and devour it. They will enter fowl-houses at night, and kill the birds as they roost upon their perches, while if they can find their way into a rabbit-hutch they will even destroy the rabbits.

In barns and farmyards rats are very mischievous, and corn-stacks are often infested by them. How often they get into houses you know too well! But on the other hand, they often do a great deal of good, by devouring substances which would otherwise decay and poison the air; so that they are not altogether without their uses, as people annoyed by them are too apt to suppose.

Rats generally have three broods of little ones in the course of the year, and as there are from eight to fourteen in each brood, you can easily understand how it is that these animals multiply so rapidly.

MICE

Still more plentiful, and almost as mischievous, is the common mouse, which is found both in town and country. And this, too, seems to have been in the first place a native of Asia, and to have since spread to almost all parts of the world.

There is no need, of course, to describe its appearance, and most of us are familiar with its habits. So we will pa.s.s on at once to one of its near relations which is not quite so well known, namely, the long-tailed field-mouse.

In some respects this animal is very much like the field-vole. But you can tell it at once by its more pointed muzzle, by its much larger ears, and, above all, by its very much longer tail. It lives in gardens, fields, and hedgerows, but often takes shelter in houses and barns during the winter. But all through the spring, summer, and autumn it occupies burrows in the ground, and very often it lays up quite large quant.i.ties of provisions in its tunnels for winter use, just as the hamster does in Germany. It does not always dig these burrows for itself, however, for very often it will take possession of the deserted run of a mole, or even of a natural hollow beneath the spreading roots of a tree.

As a general rule, this little animal is a vegetable-eater only. But when food is scarce it will kill and devour small animals, and has even been known to prey upon its own kind.

The pretty little harvest-mouse is the smallest of the European rodents.

A full-grown harvest-mouse is seldom more than four and a half inches long, of which almost one half is occupied by the tail. And it would take six of the little creatures to weigh an ounce.

The harvest-mouse is not found, as a rule, near human habitations, but lives in corn-fields and pastures. But sometimes it is carried home in sheaves of corn at harvest-time, and in that case it lives in the ricks during the winter. Generally, however, it spends the winter months fast asleep in a burrow in the ground. Then, when the warm months of spring come round, it wakes up, and sets about building a most beautiful little nest of gra.s.ses and leaves, which it always suspends among corn-stalks or gra.s.s-stems at some little height from the ground. This nest is about as large as a baseball, and the odd thing about it is that you can never find any entrance! Apparently, when the little builder wishes to go in and out, it pushes its way between the strips of gra.s.s of which the nest is composed, and then carefully arranges them again in position. And it is so cleverly built that when eight or nine little mice which are brought up inside it begin to grow, it stretches to suit their increasing size, so that their nursery is always just big enough to contain them.

The harvest-mouse is a capital climber, and runs up and down the corn-stalks with great activity, even though they bend nearly to the ground under its weight. The tip of its tail, strange to say, is prehensile, just like that of a spider-monkey.

PORCUPINES

Of course you know what a porcupine is like, with its coat of long, bristling spines. Indeed, the word porcupine means spiny pig, and refers partly to the quill-like spikes, and partly to the odd grunting noise which the animal utters from time to time.

There are several different kinds of porcupine in the Old World and in America. The common porcupine is found in the south of Europe, and also in the northern and western parts of Africa, and grows to a length of about two feet four inches, not including the tail. The quills are of two kinds. First of all, there are a number of long, slender spines, which bend quite easily, and are not of very much use as weapons. But under these is a close array of very much stiffer ones from five to ten inches long; and these are very formidable indeed. For they are so loosely fastened to the skin that when the animal backs upon a foe a good many of them are sure to be left sticking in its flesh; while, further, they are made in such a manner that they keep on boring their way farther and farther in, and in course of time may penetrate a vital organ, and cause death. Even tigers have sometimes lost their lives through the quills of a porcupine which they had been trying to kill and devour. The animal is not at all fond of fighting, however, and never attacks unless it is provoked.

During the daytime the porcupine is seldom seen, being fast asleep in its burrow. But soon after sunset it leaves its retreat, and wanders to long distances in search of the roots, bark, etc., upon which it feeds.

"In the woods, it loves to prowl around camps and eat every sc.r.a.p of leather or greasy board it can find."

In North America is found the Canada porcupine, ranging from New England westward to Ohio and northward to Hudson Bay. Another species in the West and Northwest is the yellow-haired porcupine. In Mexico, Central America, and South America are other species known as tree-porcupines.

It has been widely supposed that porcupines shoot their quills, but this belief has no foundation. When attacked, Mr. Hornaday tells us, its defence consists in erecting its quills and striking quickly a strong sidewise blow with the tail, which often drives many quills into its enemy.

THE CHINCHILLA

This pretty little rodent is famous for its beautiful silky fur, which is in much request for women's garments. In appearance it is rather like a large dormouse, with very big rounded ears, and a short, hairy tail.

It is found in Bolivia, Chile, and Peru, and lives high up among the mountains in burrows in the ground. A large number of the animals always dwell together, so that their burrows form a kind of large warren, and they dart up and down the steep rocks with such wonderful speed that it is almost impossible to follow their movements.

When it is feeding the chinchilla sits upright, like a squirrel, and conveys the food to its mouth with its fore paws. It lives chiefly upon roots, and as the districts in which it lives are so wild and barren it often has to travel for long distances in order to obtain them.

THE VISCACHA

Closely related to the chinchilla is the viscacha, which is found very abundantly in the great pampas districts of South America. It generally lives in little colonies of from twenty to thirty animals, which dig their burrows close together, and heap up the earth which they sc.r.a.pe out into one common mound. These burrows are generally dug in the form of the letter Y, and often a number of them communicate with one another by means of short pa.s.sages, so that if the little animals feel in want of society they can easily go and see their friends.

These colonies are called viscacheras, and in some parts of the Argentine Republic the plains are closely studded with them as far as the eye can reach.