The Barbary striped grass mouse (Lemniscomys barbarus) is a small rodent of the suborder Myomorpha. This monotypic species is native to coastal Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia in northwest Africa. In the past it was believed to also occur throughout a large part of Sub-Saharan Africa, but these populations are now treated as a separate species, the Heuglin's Striped Grass Mouse (L. zebra). These relatively small Lemniscomys are among the species most commonly kept in captivity.
The Barbary, Heuglin's and Hoogstral's Striped Grass Mouse (L. hoogstraali) form a group that have a distinctly dark and light striped pelage. Other Lemniscomys either have more spotty/interrupted stripes or only a single dark stripe along the back.
Famous quotes containing the words striped, grass and/or mouse:
“I shall lie folded like a saint,
Lapped in a scented linen sheet,
On a bedstead striped with bright-blue paint,
Narrow and cold and neat.”
—Elinor Wylie (1885–1928)
“He held the world upon his nose
And this-a-way he gave a fling.
His robes and symbols, ai-hi-hi
And that-a-way he twirled the thing.
Sombre as fir-trees, liquid cats
Moved in the grass without a sound.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“When out an old mouse bolted in the wheats
With all her young ones hanging at her teats;”
—John Clare (1793–1864)