Audubon's Mammals/MAMMALS1_3.BIN/dp/0023/00237.txt

Text File | 1992-08-25 | 9KB | 184 lines

$Unique_ID{QAD00237}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{Pouched Jerboa Mouse     (California Kangaroo Rat)}
$Subject{Pouched Jerboa Mouse     (California Kangaroo Rat); Dipodomys;
Phillippsii}
$Journal{Quadrupeds of North America:  Volume III}
$Volume{Vol. 3:137-140}
$Genus{Dipodomys}
$Species{Phillippsii}
$Common_Name{Pouched Jerboa Mouse}
$Log{
Plate CXXX*00237P1.scf
Genus*00236.txt}

       Portions copyright (c) Creative Multimedia Corp., 1990-91, 1992

                       A U D U B O N ' S   M A M M A L S

                    By John James Audubon, F. R. S., &c. &c.

                                      AND

                     The Rev. John Bachman, D. D., &c. &c.

                  -------------------------------------------
                                   VOL.  III.
                        --------------------------------


                         DIPODOMYS PHILLIPPSII.--GRAY.
                           [[Dipodomys californicus]

                             POUCHED JERBOA MOUSE.
                           [California Kangaroo Rat]

                              PLATE CXXX.--MALES.


     D. Magnitudine prope Tamiae Lysteri et forma Dipodum; cauda corpore et
capite conjunctum multo longiore; sacculis buccalibus externis apertis; colore,
supra fulvo, infra albo.


                                  CHARACTERS.

     Nearly the size of the common ground squirrel (Tamias Lysteri); shaped like
the jerboas; tail, much longer than the body; cheek pouches, opening externally;
colour, light brown above, white beneath.


                                   SYNONYME.

     DIPODOMYS PHILLIPPSII.  Gray, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., vol. vii. p. 521.
       1840.


                                  DESCRIPTION.

     Body, rather stout; head, of moderate size; nose, moderate, although the
skull exhibits the proboscis extended five or six lines beyond the insertion of
the incisors.
     The whiskers (which proceed from the nose immediately above the upper edge
of the orifices of the pouches) are numerous, rigid, and longer than the head;
ears, of moderate size, ovate, and very thinly clothed with short hairs; the
feet are thickly clothed with short hairs to the nails, which are free; short
hairs also prevail on the soles and between the toes; fore feet, rather stout,
but short; they have each four toes and the rudiment of a thumb, the latter
covered by a conspicuous nail; nails, short, slender, and curved; second toe
from the thumb longest, first and third nearly of equal length, and fourth
shortest.
     Hind legs, very long; the hind feet have each four toes, the two middle
ones nearly of equal length, the first a little shorter, and the fourth, placed
behind like a thumb, much the shortest; nails, nearly straight, sharp pointed,
and grooved on the under surface; tail, rather stout--in the dried specimen it
is round at base and much compressed, showing that its greatest diameter is
vertical; it is thickly clothed with short hairs for two thirds of its extent,
when the hairs gradually increase in length till they approach the extremity, at
which they are so long as to present the appearance of a tuft-like brush.  The
fur is very soft and silky, like that of the flying-squirrel; the hairs of the
tail are coarser.  There are two abdominal and two pectoral mammae.
     In the upper jaw the incisors are rather small and weak; all the molars
have simple crowns, which are more elevated on the interior than on the exterior
edges; the anterior molar is nearly round, and almost of the same size as the
two next molars, which are somewhat oval and are placed with their longest
diameter transversely to the jaw; the fourth molar is the smallest and is nearly
round.
     In the lower jaw the three anterior molars are nearly of equal size, and
are almost alike in shape; the fourth corresponding with the last molar on the
upper jaw; there is a little depression in the centre of the crowns of the
molars, and a slight ridge around the outer edges.


                                    COLOUR.

     Head, ears, back, and a stripe on the thigh from the root of the tail,
light brown, the hairs on the back being plumbeous at the roots, then yellow
slightly tipped with black.  Whiskers, black, with a few white bristly hairs
interspersed; upper and lower surfaces of tail, and a line on the under side of
the tarsus, dark brown; sides, and tip of the tail, white; cheeks, white; there
is a white stripe on the hips; the legs and under surface are white, as also a
stripe from the shoulder to the ear.  This white colour likewise extends high up
on the flanks, where it gradually mingles with the brown of the back; nails,
brownish.


                                  DIMENSIONS.

     Male.--Specimen in the British Museum.
                                                         Inches.     Lines.

       Length of head and body,  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  5          0
       Length of tail,  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  6          6
       Length of hind feet,.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  1          6

     Female.--Procured by J. W. AUDUBON in California.
                                                         Inches.     Lines.

       Point of nose to root of tail,  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  4          6
       Tail, including hair,  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  7          0
       Tarsus to end of longest nail,  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  1          6
       Ear, inside, from auditory opening,.  .  .  .  .  .  0          7
       Longest hair of whiskers, .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  2          4


                                    HABITS.

     The pretty colours and the liveliness of this little kangaroo-like animal,
together with its fine eyes and its simplicity in venturing near man, of whom it
does not seem afraid, would no doubt make it a favourite pet in confinement.  It
is able to exist in very arid and almost barren situations, where there is
scarcely a blade of anything green except the gigantic and fantastic cacti that
grow in Sonora and various other parts of Western Mexico and California.  As
JOHN W. AUDUBON and his party travelled through these countries the Dipodomys
Phillippsii was sometimes almost trampled on by the mules, and was so tame that
they could have caught the animal by the hand without difficulty.
     This species hop about, kangaroo fashion, and jump pretty far at a leap.
When the men encamped towards evening, they sometimes came smelling and moving
about the legs of the mules, as if old friends.  One was observed by J. W.
AUDUBON just before sunset; its beautiful large eyes seemed as if they might be
dimmed by the bright rays which fell upon them as it emerged from a hole under a
large boulder, but it frisked gaily about, and several times approached him so
nearly, as he sat on a stone, that he could have seized it with his hands
without any trouble, and without rising from his hard seat.
     After a while, as the party had to take up the line of march again, he with
some difficulty frightened it, when with a bound or two it reached its hole and
disappeared underneath the large stone, but almost immediately came out again;
and so great was its curiosity that as the party left the spot it seemed half
inclined to follow them.
     These animals appear to prefer the sides of stony hills which afford them
secure places to hide in, and they can easily convey their food in their
cheek-pouches to their nests.
     The young when half grown exhibit the markings of the adults to a great
extent.  This species is crepuscular if not nocturnal, and was generally seen
towards dusk, and occasionally in such barren deserts that it was difficult to
imagine what it could get to feed on.  A dead one was picked up one day while
the party were traversing a portion of the great Colorado desert, where nothing
could grow but clumps of cacti of different species, and not a drop of water
could be found.  The only living creatures appeared to be lizards of several
kinds, and one or two snakes:  the party felt surpris