jumping mouse

plural jumping mice

1. Any species of the taxonomic family Zapodidae of rodents, variously endemic to North America and China.

   That was when we realized that we have two species of jumping mice on the mountain.

   1999, Marcia Bonta, Appalachian Summer, page 138

   2 more examples

   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