Rock-loving mouse | |
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Rodentia |
Family: | Muridae |
Genus: | Mus |
Species: | M. saxicola
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Binomial name | |
Mus saxicola Elliot, 1839
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Synonyms[1] | |
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The rock-loving mouse (Mus saxicola), also known as the brown spiny mouse, is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. It is found in India, Nepal, and Pakistan.[1]
The following description is by Sir Walter Elliot:
The brown spiny mouse lives entirely in the red gravelly soil in a burrow of moderate depth, generally on the side of a bank. When the animal is inside the entrance is closed with small pebbles, a quantity of which is collected outside, by which its retreat may always be known. The burrow leads to a chamber in which is collected a bed of small pebbles on which it sits, the thick close hair of the belly protecting it from the cold and asperity of such a seat. Its food appears to be vegetable. In its habits it is monogamous and nocturnal.[2]