CHAPTER IX.

_THE RODENTS, OR GNAWING ANIMALS._

The Rodents, or Gnawing Mammals, have all the same general type of teeth, from which the order receives its distinctive name. There are a very large number of families and of genera among the rodents, more than in any other order of mammals. All the rodents possess a pair of long chisel-shaped incisor teeth in each jaw. The ends of these teeth are worn into a sharp edge which cuts like a steel tool. In most rodents these are the only teeth in that part of the jaw, a wide gap intervening between them and the other teeth. The hares, rabbits, and calling-hares have a minute pair of teeth set just behind the large pair in the upper jaw. The grinding-teeth are set far back, and are never more than six in number, these being sometimes reduced to four. Rodents generally have five toes on the fore feet; in the hind feet there are in some cases only four, or even three. None of the species are of great size; the largest, the CAPYBARA, a water-living animal of South America, is about the dimensions of a small pig. But the number of species of small rodents is prodigious, and their fecundity so great that they constantly increase in favourable seasons until they become a plague. Voles, lemmings, field-mice, and rabbits are constant sources of loss to agriculture in their seasons of extraordinary increase. Most rodents feed on vegetables, though rats and mice have developed carnivorous tastes. No rodents have canine teeth.

THE SQUIRRELS.

Those of the order of Gnawing Animals which have only two incisors in each jaw, and no rudimentary teeth like those possessed by the hares, are called "Simple-toothed Rodents." Of those the family usually placed first in order is that of the SQUIRRELS and their allies. The True Squirrels and Marmots have five molar teeth on each side of the upper jaw.

Squirrels are found in nearly every temperate part of the globe, from Norway to Japan, and in very great numbers in India and the tropics. Everywhere they are favourites; and though they do some mischief in highly cultivated countries, they are among the most harmless of creatures. Most of them live on wild nuts and the kernels of fruit; they suck eggs occasionally, and in Canada will come to the traps in extreme cold and eat the meat with which they are baited.

THE RED SQUIRREL.

This, the common squirrel of England, is representative of the whole order. In old Scandinavian legends the squirrel is represented as the messenger of the gods, who carried the news of what was going on in the world to the other animals. Together with its close relations, it is the most graceful of all climbers of trees. With its long tail waving behind it, it races up or down the trunks and across the forest from branch to branch as easily as a horse gallops across a plain. It will descend the trunk head downwards as fast as it runs up. Squirrels pair for life, and are most affectionate little creatures, always playing or doing gymnastics together. The squirrel builds a very good house, in which he shows himself far more sensible than the monkeys and apes; it is made of leaves, moss, and sticks. The sticks come first as a platform; then this is carpeted, and a roof put on. No one who has seen English squirrels at work house-building has ever described exactly how they do it; it is the best nest made by any mammal, thoroughly well fitted together and waterproof. In this nest the young squirrels are born in the month of June; that year they keep with the parents, and do not "set up for themselves" till the next spring. The red colour is very persistent in squirrels. One Chinese variety, black and red, has even bright red teeth. In cold countries the red squirrels make stores of food, but spend much of the winter asleep.

It is a great pity that in England no one tries to tame the squirrels as they do in America; there they are the greatest ornament of the parks of cities, coming down to be fed as tamely as our sparrows. The writer has known one instance in which a lady induced wild squirrels to pay daily visits to her bedroom for food; they used to climb up the ivy and jump in at the open window. The great enemies of squirrels near houses are the cats, which kill all the young ones when they first come down from the trees. In a garden in Berkshire a pair of squirrels had a family every summer for five years, but none ever survived the cats' persistent attacks. These squirrels were most amusing and improvident. They used to hide horse-chestnuts, small potatoes, kernels of stone fruit, bulbs of crocuses, and other treasures in all kinds of places, and then forget them. After deep snows they might be seen scampering about looking into every hole and crevice to see whether that happened to be the place where they had hidden something useful. Much of the store was buried among the roots of trees and bushes, and quite hidden when the snow fell.

THE GREY SQUIRREL.

In Northern Europe, and across Northern Asia and America, a large grey squirrel is found. From its fur the "squirrel-cloaks" are made. These squirrels live mainly on the seeds of pines in winter, and on wild fruits, shoots, and berries in summer. It has been noticed that they will entirely forsake some great area of forest for a year or two, and as suddenly return to it. The marten and the sable are the great enemies of the grey squirrel, but the eagle-owl and goshawk also kill numbers of them. In many countries the flesh of the squirrel is eaten.

The grey-and-black squirrel of the United States was thus described some sixty years ago: "It rises with the sun, and continues industriously engaged in the search for food for four or five hours every morning. During the warm weather of spring it prepares its nest on the branch of a tree, constructing it first of dried sticks, which it breaks off, or, if these are not at hand, of green twigs as thick as a finger, which it gnaws off from the boughs. These it lays in the fork of a tree, so as to make a framework. It lines this framework with leaves, and over these again it spreads moss. In making the nest, the pair is usually engaged for several days, spending an hour in the morning hard at work. The noise they make in cutting the sticks and carrying material is heard at some distance." In winter they reside entirely in the holes of trees, where their young are in most cases born. Green corn and young wheat suffered greatly from their depredations, and a wholesale war of destruction used to be waged against them everywhere. In Pennsylvania an old law offered threepence a head from the public treasury for every squirrel destroyed, and in 1749 the enormous sum of £8,000 was paid out of the public funds for this purpose. In those days vast migrations of these squirrels used to take place, exciting not only the wonder but the fear of the old settlers. In the Far North-west multitudes of squirrels used to congregate in different districts, forming scattered bands, which all moved in an easterly direction, gathering into larger bodies as they went. Neither mountains nor rivers stopped them. On they came, a devouring army, laying waste the corn- and wheat-fields, until guns, cats, hawks, foxes, and owls destroyed them.

THE FLYING-SQUIRRELS.

One of the finest squirrels is the TAGUAN, a large squirrel of India, Ceylon, and the Malacca forests. It is a "flying-squirrel," with a body 2 feet long, and a bushy tail of the same length. Being nocturnal, it is not often seen; but when it leaps it unfolds a flap of skin on either side, which is stretched (like a sail) when the fore and hind limbs are extended in the act of leaping; it then forms a parachute. The colour of this squirrel is grey, brown, and pale chestnut. There are a number of different flying-squirrels in China, Formosa, and Japan, and in the forests of Central America. One small flying-squirrel, the POLATOUCHE, is found in North-east Russia and Siberia. It flies from tree to tree with immense bounds, assisted by the "floats" on its sides. Though only 6 inches long, it can cover distances of 30 feet and more without difficulty. Wherever there are birch forests this little squirrel is found. One nearly as small is a native of the Southern States of America, ranging as far south as Guatemala.

In Africa, south of the Sahara, the place of the Oriental flying-squirrel is taken by a separate family. They have a different arrangement of the parachute from that of the flying-squirrels of India. This wide fold of skin is supported in the Asiatic squirrels by a cartilage extending from the wrist. In the South African flying-squirrels this support springs from the elbow, not from the wrist; they have also horny plates on the under-surface of the tail. Many of the tropical flying-squirrels are quite large animals, some being as large as a small cat.

Mr. W. H. Adams says of PEL'S FLYING-SQUIRREL, a West African species: "These squirrels come out of their holes in the trees some hours after sunset, and return long before daybreak. They are only visible on bright moonlight nights. The natives say that they do not come out of their holes at all in stormy weather, or on very dark nights; they live on berries and fruits, being especially fond of the palm-oil nut, which they take to their nests to peel and eat. They pass from tree to tree with great rapidity, usually choosing to jump from a higher branch to a lower one, and then climbing up again to make a fresh start.... They litter about twice in a year, once in September. The young remain in the nest for about nine weeks, during which they are fed by the old ones on such food as shoots and kernels. They do not attempt to jump or 'fly' till the end of that period, extending the length of their jumps with their growth."

The ETHIOPIAN SPINY SQUIRRELS have coarse spiny fur; the little INDIAN PALM-SQUIRREL is marked with longitudinal dark and light stripes on the back; others have light bands on their flanks.

THE GROUND-SQUIRRELS.

Many tree-living squirrels pass a good deal of their time on the ground; but there are others which burrow like mice, and, though they climb admirably, prefer to make their nest, and the regular squirrel's store of nuts, in the earth, and not in the branches. The best known is the little CHIPMUNK of the United States, the favourite pet of all American children. There are many kinds of chipmunks, all of which have pouches in their cheeks for carrying food. The commonest is the STRIPED CHIPMUNK. It is from 8 to 10 inches long, with white stripes, bordered with dark brown on each side. The chipmunks' hoards of grain and nuts are so large that the Indians used to rob them in times of scarcity. There is also a ground-squirrel in Northern Europe and Northern Asia with much the same habits as the chipmunk.

The burrows of the chipmunks are deep and extensive, and into them these rodents convey such quantities of grain and maize as to inflict considerable loss on the farmer. The SIBERIAN GROUND-SQUIRREL has been known to conceal over 8 lbs. weight of corn in its hole. This has a sleeping-chamber at the end, filled with moss and leaves, on which the family sleep. From this side passages are dug, all leading to chambers stocked with food, often far in excess of the wants of these provident little creatures. The surplus stores are said to be eaten in the spring by wild boars and bears.

THE PRAIRIE-DOGS AND MARMOTS.

Between squirrels which live in holes in the ground and the marmots and their relations no great gap is found. These creatures drop the climbing habit and increase that of burrowing. In disposition most of them are still very squirrel-like, though they gain something in solemnity of demeanour by never going far from their holes. A prairie-dog or marmot is like a squirrel which has left society and settled down in a suburb. The little creatures known in America as PRAIRIE-DOGS have in Northern Europe and the steppes of Asia some first cousins, called SUSLIKS. Both live in colonies, burrow quickly and well, feed on grass, and have a habit of sitting bolt upright outside their holes, keeping a look-out for enemies. The prairie-dogs also bark like a little dog when alarmed. Before going to sleep, the latter always carry the dry grass on which they slept out of their burrow, and carefully bite up into short lengths a fresh supply to make their beds. The susliks and prairie-dogs are of a khaki colour, like the sand in which they delight to burrow. Every one has heard that the little burrowing-owls live in the same holes in company with the prairie-dogs, and that the rattlesnake sometimes eats both the young prairie-dogs and the young owls. An acquaintance of the writer who had killed a rattlesnake actually took a young prairie-dog from its mouth. The snake had not struck it with the poison, but had begun to swallow it uninjured. It was still alive, and recovered.

The suslik was once found in England; its remains, with those of other steppe animals, are found in the river gravels and brick earth in the London basin. The prairie-dogs form a kind of connecting-link between the susliks and the true marmots. They have short ears, short tails, rounded bodies, and possess great powers of digging. When a prairie-dog has nothing better to do, it usually spends its time either in digging holes or in cutting up grass or anything handy to make its bed with. Young prairie-dogs are not so large as a mouse when born. The adult animals feed almost entirely on grass and weeds in their wild state; they seem quite independent of water, and able to live in the driest places.

The ALPINE MARMOT is a much larger species than the prairie-dog. It lives on the Alps just below the line of perpetual snow. From five to fifteen marmots combine in colonies, dig very deep holes, and, like the prairie-dogs, carefully line them with grass; they also store up dry grass for food. In autumn they grow very fat, and are then dug out of the burrows by the mountaineers for food. Young marmots used to be tamed and carried about by the Savoyard boys, but this practice is now rare. The monkey is probably more attractive to the public than the fat and sleepy marmot. Marmots are about the size of a rabbit, and have close iron-grey fur.

Tschudi, the naturalist of the Alps, says of the marmots that they are the only mammal which inhabits the region of the snows. No other warm-blooded quadrupeds live at such an altitude. In spring, when the lower snows melt, there are generally small pieces of short turf near their holes, as well as great rocks, precipices, and stones. Here they make their burrows, outside which they feed, with a sentinel always posted to warn them of the approach of the eagle or lammergeir. The young marmots, from four to six in number, are born in June. When they first appear at the mouth of the holes, they are bluish grey; later the fur gains a brownish tint. The burrows are usually at a height of not less than 7,000 or 8,000 feet. Winter comes on apace. By the end of autumn the ground is already covered with snow, and the marmots retire to sleep through the long winter. As they do not become torpid for some time, they require food when there is none accessible; this they store up in the form of dried grass, which they cut in August, and leave outside their burrows for a time to be turned into hay.

The ALPINE MARMOT is also found in the Carpathians and the Pyrenees. Another species, the BOBAC, ranges eastward from the German frontier across Poland, Russia, and the steppes of Asia to Kamchatka. In Ladak and Western Tibet a short-tailed species, the HIMALAYAN MARMOT, is found, sometimes living at a height of nearly 17,000 feet. The GOLDEN MARMOT is found in the Pamirs.

THE BEAVERS.

The BEAVERS are classed as the last family of the squirrel-like group of the Rodents, and the largest creatures of that order in the northern hemisphere. The value of their fur has caused their destruction in great measure where they were once numerous, and has led to their total extirpation where there is evidence that they existed as a not uncommon animal. They were formerly distributed over the greater part of Europe. In England semi-fossilised remains show that they were not uncommon. In Wales beavers' skins were mentioned in the year 940 in the laws of Howel Dha, and in 1188 Giraldus stated that they were living on the river Teify, in Cardiganshire. Beavers were formerly found in France, especially on the Rhone, where a few are still said to survive, in Germany, Austria, Russia, Poland, and in Sweden and Norway, on the rivers Dwina and Petchora, and on the great rivers of Siberia. A few still remain in two districts of Norway, and some were known to frequent the Elbe in 1878. The Moldau, in Bohemia, is also credited with a colony; but parts of the Danube are believed to be the chief haunt of the European beaver at the present time. The American beaver, though its range has greatly contracted, is still sufficiently numerous for its fur to be a valuable item in the winter fur-sales.

The beaver's tail is flattened like a paddle and covered with scales; its hind feet are webbed between the toes; it has sharp claws, which aid it in scratching up mud, and a thick, close fur, with long brown hair above, and a most beautiful and close under-fur, which, when the long hairs have all been removed, forms the beaver-fur of which hats were once made, and trimmings for ladies' jackets and men's fur coats are now manufactured. There are two separate lines of interest in connection with the animal--political and zoological. The value of the fur was anciently such that, when the first French explorers began to search the Canadian lakes, and later when the Hudson Bay Company succeeded to the French dominion, the history of Canada was largely bound up with beaver-catching and the sale of the skins. In the early days of the Company the "standard of trade" of the North-west was a beaver-skin. For nearly a century the northern territories were organised, both under French and English rule, with a view to the beaver trade. The beaver was, and is, the crest of the Canadian Dominion.

The beavers' engineering feats have for their object to keep up a uniform depth of water in the streams where they live. On large rivers there is always enough water for the beaver to swim in safety from its enemies, and to cover the mouth of the hole which it makes in the bank, just as a water-rat does. But on small streams, especially in Canada, where during the winter the frost prevents the springs from running, there is always the danger that the water may fall so low that the beavers would be left in shallow water, a prey to the wolverine, wolf, lynx, or human enemies. To keep up the water, the beavers make a dyke or dam across the stream. This they go on building up and strengthening until they have ponded back a large pool. In time, as they never seem to stop adding to their dam, the pool floods the ground on either side of the stream and makes a small lake. It flows over the parts of the bank where their holes are; these also become filled up, because the beavers carry into them every day fresh quantities of wood-chips to make their beds. The beavers then scrape out the earth on the top, pile sticks over this, plaster the sticks with mud, and so build a dome over their bedroom. In time this is raised higher and higher, the artificial lake rises too, and the complete "beaver-lodge" surrounded with water is seen. The old trappers who found these _in situ_ imagined they were built at once and outright in the water. The experiments and observations at Leonardslee, in Sussex, where Sir E. G. Loder has kept beavers in a stream for ten years, show that the "evolution" of the lodge is gradual and only incidental. But the building of the dyke, the cutting of the trees, and the making of the pool are done with a purpose and definite aim.

What this is, and how done, is explained in the following description of the beaver colony at Leonardslee: "Their first object was to form in the brook a pool, with water maintained at a constant height, to keep the mouth of their burrow in the bank submerged during the droughts of summer. To this end they built a dam, as good a specimen of their work as can be seen even in Canada. Its situation was carefully chosen. A small oak, growing on what appears to have been a projection in the bank, gives support to the work. It may be concluded that this was part of their intention; for though they have cut down every other tree in their enclosure to which they had access, except two or three very large ones, they have left this small tree which supports the dam untouched. (Later, when the dyke was stronger, they cut it down.) Above this stretches the dam, some 12 yards wide, and rising 5½ feet from the base to the crest. The beavers built it solidly of battens of alder, willow, larch, and other straight-limbed trees, cut into lengths of from 2 to 3 feet. The bark of each was carefully gnawed off for food; and the whole work, constructed of these cut and peeled logs, has a very regular and artificial appearance. Smaller twigs and sticks are jammed in between the battens, and the interstices are stuffed with mud, which the beavers bring up from the bottom of the pool in their mouths, and push in with their feet, making the whole structure as watertight as a wall." This dam converted what was a narrow brook into a long lake, some 50 yards by 15 or 20 yards broad. Later the beavers made another larger dam below this, cutting down some more trees. One tree gave them a great deal of trouble; it was a beech, 40 feet high, and hard to gnaw; so they waited till the water rose round it, and then _dug it up_. When the large dam was made, quite a considerable lake was formed below the first. They then neglected their first dam, and let the water run out of the top lake into the lower one. At the time of writing there are five old beavers and a family of young ones at Leonardslee. The work done by these beavers, so few in numbers, shows how large colonies may alter the course of rivers.

THE DORMICE.

There are a considerable number of animals, even in England, which hibernate. Most of these feed largely on insect food, which in winter is unobtainable in any great quantity. Consequently the hedgehog and the badger, which live largely on snails and worms, go to sleep in the famine months. So does the sleepiest of all--the DORMOUSE. This alone would show that this little rodent probably feeds on insects very largely, for if it only ate nuts and berries it could easily store these, and find a good supply also in the winter woods. It has been recently proved that dormice are insectivorous, and will eat aphides, weevils, and caterpillars. But a dormouse hibernates for so long a time that one might imagine its vitality entirely lost; it sleeps for six months at a time, and becomes almost as cold as a dead animal, and breathes very slowly and almost imperceptibly. Mr. Trevor-Battye says that if warmed and made to awaken suddenly in the winter it would die in a minute or two, its heart beating very fast, "like a clock running down." Before their hibernation dormice grow very fat. There is a large species, found in Southern Europe, which the Romans used to eat when in this fat stage. In winter dormice usually seek the nest of some small bird, and use it as a sleeping-place. They pull out and renew the lining, or add a roof themselves. Into the interior they carry a fresh supply of moss, and sleep there in great comfort. Their great enemy at this time is the weasel. There are two main groups of the dormice, divided by naturalists in reference to the structure of their stomach. The South African GRAPHIURES have short tufted tails. The hibernating habit is confined to the more northern species.

THE MOUSE TRIBE.

This family, which includes the MICE, RATS, and VOLES, contains more than a third of the number of the whole order of Rodents. Some are arboreal, others aquatic; but most are ground-living animals and burrowers. The number of known species has been estimated at 330. Among the most marked types are the WATER-MICE of Australia and New Guinea, and of the island of Luzon in the Philippines. The feet of the Australian species are webbed, though those of the Philippine form are not. The GERBILS form another group, mainly inhabitants of desert districts. They have very large eyes, soft fur, and tails of various length and form in different species. They have greatly developed hind legs, and leap like jerboas, and are found in Southern Europe, Asia, and Africa. The PHILIPPINE RATS, large and long-haired, and the TREE-MICE of Africa south of the Sahara, form other groups. A very mischievous race of rodents is represented in Europe by the HAMSTERS, and in the New World by a closely allied group, the WHITE-FOOTED MICE.

THE HAMSTERS.

The HAMSTER is a well-known European species, and represents the group of pouched rats. These creatures have cheek-pouches to aid them in carrying food. In addition they are most voracious and inquisitive, so that the hamster is a type throughout Central Europe of selfishness and greed. We are sorry to add that John Bull occasionally appears in German cartoons as the "Land-hamster," or land-grabber. Hamsters are numerous from the Elbe to the Obi. They burrow and make cellars in the corn- and bean-fields, and convey thither as much as a bushel of grain. As soon as the young hamsters can shift for themselves, each moves off, makes a separate burrow, and begins to hoard beans and corn. As the litter sometimes contains eighteen young, the mischief done by the hamster is great. Its coloration is peculiar. The fur, which is so thick as to be used for the linings of coats, is a light yellowish brown above. A yellow spot marks each cheek. The lower surface of the body, the legs, and a band on the forehead are black, and the feet white. Thus the hamster reverses the usual natural order of colour in mammals, which tends to be dark on the back and light below. The animal is 10 inches long, and very courageous. Hamsters have been known to seize a horse by the nose which stepped on their burrow, and at all times they are ready to defend their home. Besides vegetables and corn, they destroy smaller animals. They spend the winter in a more or less torpid state in their burrows, but emerge early in spring. They then make their summer burrows and produce their young, which in a fortnight after birth are able to begin to make a burrow for themselves.

Among the South American members of the group to which the hamster belongs are the FISH-EATING RATS, with webbed hind feet. The RICE-RAT, which is found from the United States to Ecuador, lives on the Texas prairies much as do the prairie-marmots, though its burrows are not so extensive, and often quite shallow. In these the rats make beds of dry grass.

THE VOLES.

The VOLES are allied to the preceding groups, but are marked externally by a shorter and heavier form than the typical rats and mice. Their ears are shorter, their noses blunter, their eyes smaller, and the tail generally shorter. They are found in great numbers at certain seasons, when they often develop into a pest. The SHORT-TAILED FIELD-VOLE is responsible for much destruction of crops in Europe. One of the latest plagues of these animals took place in the Lowlands of Scotland, where these voles devoured all the higher pastures on the hills. Nearly at the same time a similar plague occurred in Turkish Epirus. When an English commissioner was sent to enquire into the remedies (if any existed) there in use, he found that the Turks were importing holy water from Mecca to sprinkle on the fields affected. The BANK-VOLE is a small English species, replaced on the Continent by the SOUTHERN FIELD-VOLE.

The WATER-RAT belongs to the vole group. It is one of the most commonly seen of all our English mammals--probably, except the rabbit, the most familiar. Although not entirely nocturnal, it prefers the darkness of twilight; but whenever the visitor to the waterside keeps still, the water-rats will allow him to watch them. The writer has had rather an extensive acquaintance with these cousins of the beavers, and, while watching them, has never ceased to be struck with their close resemblance to those creatures. At Holkham Lake, in Norfolk, he noticed a willow-bush, in which a number of twigs had been gnawed off; and then saw the missing sticks lying neatly peeled, just like "beaver-wood," in the water below. Waiting quietly, he noticed a water-rat climb into the bush, gnaw off a willow twig, descend with it to the edge of the water, and there, sitting on some crossed boughs, peel and eat the bark, just as a beaver does. By the Thames a sound is often heard in the round reeds as of something tearing or biting them; it is made by the water-rats getting their supper. The rat cuts off three or four sedges and makes a rough platform. It then cuts down a piece of one of the large round reeds full of pith, and, holding it in its hands, seizes the bark with its teeth, and shreds it up the stem, peeling it from end to end. This exposes the white pith, which the rat then eats. Water-rats have been seen to swim out and pick up acacia blossoms floating on the water. When swimming under water, each hair is tipped by a little bubble, which makes the rat look like quicksilver. When it comes out, the rat shakes itself with a kind of shiver, throwing all the water off its coat. Though so good a swimmer, its feet are not webbed. It is found from Scotland to the Bering Sea, but not in Ireland.

In the Far North the LEMMING takes the place of the voles. It is a very small, short-tailed creature, like a diminutive prairie-dog. Like the voles, lemmings have seasons of immoderate increase. They then migrate in enormous flocks, and are said never to stop till they reach the sea, into which they plunge. It is believed that they are following an inherited instinct, and that where there is now sea there once was land, over which they passed onwards.

The MUSK-RAT inhabits the same waters as the beaver of North America. It makes a house, generally of reeds piled in a mound, in the lakes and swamps. The body is only 12 inches long, but the fur is thick and close, and much used for lining coats and cloaks. The vast chains of rivers and lakes in Canada make that country the favourite home of the musk-rat. This creature lives upon roots of aquatic plants, freshwater-mussels, and stems of juicy herbs. Besides making the domed houses of grass, reeds, and mud, it also burrows in the banks of streams. There it makes rather an elaborate home, with numerous passages leading to the water. The odour of musk is very strong even in the skin. The tail is narrow and almost naked. This species is the largest of the vole group.

THE TYPICAL RATS AND MICE.

These animals were originally an Old World group. Though the brown rat is now common in America, it is believed to have come originally from China.

A very large number of animals are now almost dependent on man and his belongings. Such creatures are said to be "commensalistic," or eaters at the same table. They are often very unwelcome guests, whether they are flies, sparrows, or cockroaches; but probably the least welcome of all are the rats and mice. The BROWN RAT is the best known of any. It has come into worse repute than usual of late, because it is now certain that it harbours the plague-bacillus, and communicates the disease to man. Its habits and appearance need no description. The BLACK RAT is the older and smaller species indigenous in Europe, which the brown rat has almost extirpated from England. A few old houses still hold the black rat, and there are always a few wild ones at the Zoological Gardens which feed in the animals' houses. The BLACK-AND-WHITE RAT (not the albino white rat) kept tame in this country is probably a domesticated form of the ALEXANDRINE RAT of Egypt.

The HOUSE-MOUSE is now found in all parts of the world to which Europeans have access. In England its main home is in the corn-ricks. Were the farmers to thresh the grain, as is done in the United States, as soon as it is cut, mice would be far less common. Besides these parasitic mice, there are a host of field- and forest-mice in this and other countries. One of the best-known English species is the HARVEST-MOUSE, which makes a globular nest of grass in the wheat-fields, attached to stems of corn or weeds. In this the young are born. In winter the mouse lives in holes in banks, and lays up a store of kernels and grain. The WOOD-MOUSE is larger than the former, or than the HOUSE-MOUSE. It is yellowish brown in colour, lays up a great store of winter food, and is itself the favourite prey of the weasel.

THE BANDICOOTS.

A very mischievous class of rats is represented by the various species of BANDICOOT. They are found throughout Southern Asia as far as Ceylon, and in Kashmir and Turkestan. The BANDICOOT-RAT of India is a large and destructive species which is sometimes brought to the London docks in ships, but has not spread into the country.

OTHER MURINE RODENTS.

Among the numerous other rodents allied to the rat group are the MOLE-RATS, with short mole-like bodies. The largest is the GREAT MOLE-RAT, found in South-eastern Europe, South-western Asia, and North-eastern Africa. It is a subterranean creature, burrowing for food like a mole. The BAMBOO-RATS have minute eyes, small external ears, and a short tail partly covered with hair. In Somaliland a small, almost naked SAND-RAT is found, which burrows in the sand of the desert, throwing up little heaps like mole-hills.

THE GOPHERS.

In North and Central America the POCKET-GOPHERS form a curious group of small rodents with cheek-pouches opening on the outside. They spend their entire existence underground, and are said to use their incisor teeth as picks to open the hard earth in their tunnels. They push the loosened soil out by pressing it with their chests and fore feet. When a gopher has eaten enough to satisfy the immediate calls of hunger, it stores all spare food away in the large cheek-pouches. When gophers desire to empty the pouches, they pass their feet along their cheeks from behind, and press the food forwards on to the ground.

THE JERBOAS, SPRINGHAAS, AND JUMPING-MICE.

The hopping rodents have an immense range, from Southern Europe, through Africa, Arabia, India, and Ceylon, and even in the New World, where the AMERICAN JUMPING-MOUSE is found throughout the northern part of the continent. The latter is only 3 inches long. The true JERBOAS are mainly found in Africa. All these, when excited, move like kangaroos. Their main home is the Central Asian steppe region, but they are found in Egypt, India, Syria, and Arabia. The hind legs are much elongated, the fore legs very small, and the body usually of a sandy colour. The American jumping-mouse, though a very small creature, can cover from 3 to 5 feet at each leap. It inhabits the beech and hard-wood forests. In winter it makes a globular nest about 6 inches under the surface of the ground.

The CAPE JUMPING-HARE forms a family by itself, with no near allies. It is of a tawny brown colour, becoming almost pure white below.

The tail is long, and carried upright as the animal leaps. The head and body are nearly 2 feet long, and the tail 20 inches. It is found both in the plains and mountains of South Africa, where it makes deep burrows, in which several families live. It is mainly nocturnal.

THE OCTODONT FAMILY.

America is the main home of this family of rodents, though there are several representatives in Africa. Their name is due to the fact that they have four molar teeth on each side of the jaw. The best-known species is the COYPU, or NUTRIA, of South America, an aquatic, fur-bearing animal. It is very plentiful in the large rivers of that continent, where its fur is a valuable commodity for export. When swimming, the female coypu carries its young on its back. The coypu is usually 20 inches long, with a tail two-thirds of the length of its head and body. The general colour is brown above and brownish yellow below. Coypus live in pairs in holes in the river-banks. In the Chonos Archipelago they frequent the seashore, and burrow near the beach.

The HUTIA, another large octodont, is found in the West Indies. There are two species, both partly arboreal. The TUCO-TUCOS, burrowing octodonts of the pampas and the far south of the American Continent, are rat-like animals, with large claws and very small eyes and ears.

THE PORCUPINES.

These animals are either tree-climbers or ground-dwellers. The former are found in South America, though one, the CANADIAN PORCUPINE, is found in the North; the latter are European and Asiatic. In Africa they are also common. The Canadian porcupine passes nearly all its life in trees, feeding on the leaves; but it has not a prehensile tail. The COMMON PORCUPINE is abundant in Italy (where it is eaten by man), Greece, Spain, and Africa. It lives in burrows or among rocks. In India a very similar species is found. The head and shoulders of these ground-porcupines are not protected by the larger sharp spines which guard the rest of their bodies.

The tree-porcupines of the forests of Central America have long prehensile tails, and are very lightly built. The quills are short, the head rounded, and the appearance very different from that of the European or African species. The common porcupine of Europe and North Africa measures about 28 inches in length from the nose to the root of the tail. The head, neck, and shoulders are covered with short spines and hairs, and the shoulders and back by a crest of long spines, varying from 12 to 15 inches in length. The tail also carries spines.

VISCACHAS AND CHINCHILLAS.

On the plains of La Plata the commonest large rodent is the VISCACHA. It assembles in societies like the prairie-dogs, but is a much larger animal, from 18 inches to 2 feet long. Viscachas always set a sentinel to give warning of danger. They cut every kind of vegetable near and drag them to their holes; they also have a habit of picking up and collecting round the burrows any object which strikes them as curious. Articles lost by travellers, even whips or boots, may generally be found there. The viscacha belongs to the chinchilla family, but differs much from the beautiful creature of the high Andes from which chinchilla fur is taken. The COMMON CHINCHILLA is about 10 inches long, and the SHORT-TAILED CHINCHILLA rather smaller. The exquisite fur is well known. Two other chinchillas are more like hares in appearance. All four creatures are found on the Andes.

THE AGUTIS AND PACAS.

South America also produces a family of rodents not unlike small pigs, but nearer to the mouse-deer in general appearance; they are called AGUTIS. Mainly forest animals, but living also in the plains, they feed on grass, leaves, and plants of all kinds; they are very swift in their movements, and have much the habits of the small South African bucks. The fur is long, olive- or chestnut-coloured, and thick.

The PACAS are allied to the agutis, but are stouter; they live either in burrows made by themselves, or in holes in the banks of rivers, or in old tree-roots. The pacas are spotted and rather ornamentally marked; they are found from Ecuador to Brazil and Paraguay.

THE CAVIES.

The DINOMYS, a spotted rodent known by one example from Peru, has been thought to form a link between the pacas and the cavies, of which the guinea-pig is the most familiar and the aquatic capybara the largest. The original of our guinea-pig is believed to be the RESTLESS CAVY, a small rodent common on the plains of La Plata. It is dark blackish, with yellowish-grey and white hairs of the domesticated species; and it is suggested that the original of the present name was "Guiana pig." This cavy lives in thickets rather than in forests or plains.

The PATAGONIAN CAVY is a larger form, about twice the size of our hare. It burrows in the ground, and has a grey coat, with yellowish markings on the sides. It has been acclimatised successfully in France and England. The flesh is like that of the rabbit.

The CAPYBARA is the largest of all rodents. This species is, in fact, a gigantic water-guinea-pig. It is found in all the great rivers of South America, from the Orinoco to the La Plata. It swims as well as a water-rat, though it is as large as a small pig. It feeds on reeds, water-plants, and grass. A capital photograph of this animal appears on page 146.

PIKAS, HARES, AND RABBITS.

The last two families of the Rodents have a small pair of rudimentary incisor teeth behind the large ones in the upper jaw. The PIKAS, or CALLING-HARES, resemble the marmot tribe in general appearance. Their heads are short, their ears rounded, and, being tailless, they still less resemble the common hare; but their dentition marks them as allied. One species, about 9 inches long, is found in Siberia; and another, only 7 inches long, in the Rocky Mountains. The former has a habit of cutting grass and storing it in small stacks outside its hole for winter use; the Rocky Mountain species carries its hay into its burrows.

The HARES are a widely distributed group. They are found from the north of Scotland (where the grey mountain species turns white in winter) to the south of India, in South Africa, and across the continent of Asia to Japan. The MOUNTAIN-HARE takes the place of the brown species in Scandinavia, Northern Russia, and Ireland; it is rather smaller, and has shorter ears and hind legs.

As early as 54 B.C., Cæsar, in his account of Britain, writes that the COMMON HARE was kept by the ancient Britons as a pet, but not eaten by them. It was protected by the Normans in the second list, or schedule, of animals reserved for sport. The first list included the _Beasts of the Forest_, the second the _Beasts of the Chase_, of which the hare was one of the first. The word "chase" has here a technical meaning, by which was understood an open park, or preserved area, midway in dignity between a forest and an enclosed park. "Hare parks" were also made, perhaps the most recent being that made at Bushey for the amusement of the sovereign when at Hampton Court Palace. The name is often found surviving elsewhere. At Hokham, the Earl of Leicester's seat in Norfolk, a walled park of 1,500 acres holds almost all the hares on the estate. If these parks and forest laws had not existed at an early date, it is probable that the hare would have become very scarce in this country.

Hares produce their leverets about the middle of April, though in mild seasons they are born much earlier. The number of the litter is from two to five. They are placed in a small hollow scraped out by the doe hare, but not in a burrow of any kind.

The instinct of concealment by remaining still is very highly developed in the hares and rabbits. They will often "squat" on the ground until picked up rather than take to flight. This seems almost a perverted instinct; yet hares often exhibit considerable courage and resource when escaping from their enemies. The following is an instance:--A hare was coursed by two young greyhounds on some marshes intersected by wide ditches of water. It first ran to the side of one of these ditches, and doubled at right angles on the brink. This caused the outer dog to lose its balance and to fall heavily into the deep and cold water. The hare then made straight for the line of walkers, and passed through them, with the other greyhound close behind it. The dog reached out and seized the hare by the fur of the back, throwing it down. The hare escaped, leaving a large patch of fur in the dog's jaws, doubled twice, and was again seized by the second dog, which had come up. It escaped from the jaws of the second pursuer, leapt two ditches 12 feet wide, and then sat for a moment behind a gate on a small bridge. This use of the only cover near caused the dogs to lose sight of it; they refused to jump the second drain, and the hare escaped.

The RABBIT is too well known to need description either of its habits or appearance. It originally came from the countries south of the Mediterranean, but is now common in Northern Europe, and has become a pest in Australia and New Zealand. The rabbit breeds when six months old, and has several litters in each year.

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