shadow over the floor of its cage. I have now had nearly a dozen of these animals. They are cheap to buy and easy to keep, requiring no more care than so many Rabbits, and needing no artificial heat in winter if kept indoors and warmly bedded. Jerboas are extremely playful, and are fond of ploughing up the sand or sawdust on the cage-floor with their truncated muzzles, heaping it up into little mounds. They will also scramble up wire netting (presenting an extraordinary appearance owing to the great disproportion between the fore and hind legs), and will recklessly jump to the floor from a considerable height at the risk of serious injury to themselves. They are subject to a chronic wasting disease, the unfortunate animal becoming thinner and thinner month by month, although feeding and running about as usual, and I have lost several from this cause. Jerboas may be fed on crushed oats, millet seed, bread, lettuce, and cabbage. Although desert-haunting animals, they require water.
Edentata.
Dasypus villosus (Hairy Armadillo).—This grotesque animal may be described almost as a mammalian Woodlouse, its jointed carapace recalling that common crustacean. In addition to its curious appearance, the Hairy Armadillo exhibits more character than would have been expected of so lowly a mammal, being markedly intelligent and even self-willed. The pleasure of keeping these edentates depends very largely on the dieting, and it must be admitted that any which are fed on meat smell most abominably; those kept on bread and milk are much less objectionable. Armadillos (when they have been acclimatized) are thus best kept out of doors, care being taken to bed them warmly in winter. They are great burrowers, and will soon be lost if the floor of the run is not made of concrete, stone, or other impenetrable material, and care must also be taken that they do not scramble up and over the walls of their enclosure. The Hairy Armadillo sleeps all day either lying semi-contracted on its side, or else on its back, often with a silly Pig-like smile on its countenance. Towards evening it wakes up, and begins to explore every inch of its prison with a steady systematic diligence, which contrasts oddly with the alert nimbleness of a Jerboa or Squirrel, the Armadillo sniffing solemnly over every part of the
