THE JERBOA.
I TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.").
SIR,—The interesting account of a tame jerboa which you printed in the Spectator of February 11th put me in mind of Horace Walpole's description of a tame " jeribo" in a letter to George Montagu, dated August 28th, 1752, which I have transcribed below, in case you should think it worth reprint.
" Mr. Conway has brought Lady Ailesbury from Minorca, but originally from Africa, a Jeribo : to be sure you know what that is ; if you don't, I will tell you, and then I believe you will scarce know any better. It is a composition of a squirrel, a hare, a rat, and a monkey, which altogether looks very like a bird. In short, it is about the size of the first, with much such a head, except that the tip of the nose seems shaved off, and the remains aro like a human hare-lip; the ears and its timidity are like a real hare. It has two short little feet before like a rat, but which it never uses for walking, I believe never but to hold its food. The tail is naked like a monkey's, with a tuft of hair at the end, striped black and white in rings. The two hind legs are as long as a Granville's, with feet more like a bird than any other animal, and upon these it hops so immensely fast and upright that at a distance you would take it for a largo thrush. It lies in cotton, is brisk at night, eats wheat, and never drinks; it would, but drinking is fatal to them. Such is a jeribo !"
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