jumping mouse

Noun

jumping mouse (plural jumping mice)

1. Any species of the taxonomic family Zapodidae of rodents, variously endemic to North America and China.
   • The jumping mouse is little larger than a house mouse and has a very long, scaly, untufted tail, one-third longer than the head and body.[…]In fact, various observers have found that jumping mice with injured or amputated tails tumble over and are as helpless as a ship without a rudder.1953, Lowell Sumner, Joseph Scattergood Dixon, Birds and Mammals of the Sierra Nevada, page 423
   • In some respects a jumping mouse resembles kangaroo rats and kangaroo mice in habits and appearance. A jumping mouse may readily be distinguished from these animals, however, by its lack of fur-lined cheek pouches and by its preference for, or nearness to, moist habitats instead of arid places.1954, Lloyd Glenn Ingles, Mammals of California and Its Coastal Waters, page 256

   Synonyms:

   zapodid