such a manner that it fills the whole cavity. While this is doing the poor little animal seems sensible of its danger, and begs for quarter with a most plaintive cry, seldom quitting its hole till the utmost extremity. At last, when half suffocated, it issues out, and trusts once more to its speed for protection. When still forced by the dogs, and incapable of making good a retreat, it turns upon the hunters, and with its hair bristling like a hog, and standing upon its hind-feet, it obstinately defends itself. Sometimes it bites the legs of those who attempt to take it, and will take out the piece wherever it fixes its teeth.

Its cry when disturbed or provoked resembles that of a sucking pig. If taken young it is easily tamed, continues to play harmlessly about the house, and goes out and returns of its own accord. In a savage state it usually continues in the woods, and the female generally chooses the most obscure parts to bring forth her young. She there prepares a bed of leaves and dry grass, and generally brings forth two at a time. She breeds twice or thrice a year, and carries her young from one place to another, as covenience requires, in the manner of a cat. She generally lodges them when three days old in the hollow of a tree, suckling them but for a very short time, for they soon come to perfection. and it consequently follows that they soon grow old.

THE PACA-The paca is an animal of South America, very much resembling the former, and like it has received the name of the "American rabbit," but with as little propriety. It is about the size of a hare, or rather larger, and in figure somewhat like a sucking pig, which it also resembles in its grunting and its manner of eating. It is, however, most like the agouti, although it differs in several particulars. Like the agouti, it is covered rather with coarse hair than a downy fur. But then it is beautifully marked along the sides with small ashcoloured spots upon an amber-coloured ground, whereas the agouti is pretty much of one redish colour. The paca is more thick and corpulent than the agouti; its nose is shorter, and its hind-feet have five toes, whereas the agouti has but three. As to the rest, this animal bears some distant resemblance to a rabbit; the ears are naked of hair and somewhat sharp, the lower jaw is somewhat longer than the upper, the teeth, the shape of the head, and the size of it are like to those of a rabbit. It has a short tail likewise, though not tufted; and its hinder legs are longer than the fore. It also burrows in the ground like that animal, and from this similitude aione travellers might have given it the name.

The paca does not make use of its fore-paws, like the squirrel or the agouti, to carry its food to the mouth, but hunts for it on the ground, and roots like a hog. It is generally seen along the banks of rivers, and is only to be found in the moist and warm countries of South America. It is a very fat animal, aud in this respect much preferable to the agouti, which is most commonly found lean. It is eaten, skin and all, like a young pig, and is considered as a great delicacy. Like the former little animal it defends itself to the last extremity, and is very seldom taken alive. It is persecuted not only by man but by every beast and bird of prey, who all watch its motions, and, if it ventures at any distance from its hole, are sure to seize it. But although the race of these animals is thus continually destroyed, it finds some refuge in its hole from the general combination, and breeds in such numbers that the diminution is not perceptible.

To these animals may be added others, very similar both in form and disposition, each known by its particular name in its native country, but which travellers have been contented to call rabbits or hares, of which we have but indistinct notice. The "tapeti," or "Brazilian rabbit," is in shape like our English ones, but much less, being said to be not above twice the size of a dormouse. It is redish on the forehead, and a little whitish under

the throat. It is remarkable for having no tail; but it has long ears and whiskers, like our rabbits, and black eyes. It does not burrow like ours, but lives at large like the hare.

The" aperea" is also called by some the "Brazilian rabbit," being an animal that seems to partake of the nature of a rabbit and a rat. The ears are like those of a rat, being short and round; but the other parts are like those of a rabbit, except that it has but three toes on the hinder legs like the agouti.

To these imperfect sketches of animals little known, others less known might be added; for as Nature becomes more diminutive her operations are less attentively regarded. I shall only, therefore, add one animal more to this class, and that very well known-I mean the Guinea-pig, which Brisson places among those of the rabbit; and as I do not know any other set of animals with which it can be so well compared, I will take leave to follow his example.

THE GUINEA-PIG.-The Guinea-pig is a native of the warmer climates, but has been so long rendered domestic and so widely diffused, that it has now become common in every part of the world. There are few unacquainted with the figure of this little animal; in some places it is considered as the principal favourite, and is often found even to displace the lap-dog. It is less than a rabbit, and its legs are shorter-they are scarce seen except when it moves; and the neck, also, is so short, that the head seems stuck upon the shoulders. The ears are short, thin, and transparent; the hair is like that of a sucking-pig, from whence it has taken the name; and it wants even the vestiges of a tail. In other respects it has some similitude to the rabbit. When it moves its body lengthens like that animal; and when it is at rest it gathers up in the same manner. Its nose is formed with the rabbit lip, except that its nostrils are much farther asunder. Like all other animals in a domestic state, its colours are different; some are white, some are red, and others both red and white. It differs from the rabbit in the number of its toes, having four toes on the feet before, and but three on those behind. It strokes its head with the fore-feet, like the rabbit; and, like it, sits upon the hind-feet; for which purpose there is a naked callous skin on the back part of the legs and feet.

These animals are of all others the most helpless and inoffensive. They are scarce possessed of courage sufficient to defend themselves against the meanest of all quadrupeds-the mouse. Their only animosity is exerted against each other, for they will often fight very obstinately, and the stronger is often known to destroy the weaker; but against all other aggressors their only remedy is patience and non-resistance. How, therefore, these animals in a savage state could contrive to protect themselves I have not been able to learn, as they want strength, swiftness, and even the natural instinct so common to almost every other creature.

As to their manner of living among us, they owe their lives entirely to our unceasing protection. They must be constantly attended, shielded from the excessive colds of the winter, and secured against all other domestic animals which are apt to attack them from every motive, either of appetite, jealousy, or experience of their pusillanimous nature. Such, indeed, is their stupidity, that they suffer themselves to be devoured by the cats without resistance; and, differing from all other creatures, the female sees her young destroyed without once attempting to protect them. Their usual food is bran, parsley, or cabbage-leaves; but there is scarce a vegetable cultivated in our gardens that they will not gladly devour. The carrot-top is a peculiar dainty, as is also salad; and those who would preserve their healths, would do right to vary their food; for if they be continued on a kind too succulent or too dry the effects are quickly perceived upon their constitutions. When fed

upon recent vegetables they seldom drink. But it often happens that, conducted by Nature, they seek drier food when the former disagrees with them. They then gnaw clothes, paper, or whatever of this kind they meet with; and on these occasions they are seen to drink like most other animals, which they do by lapping. They are chiefly fond of new milk, but in case of necessity are contented with water.

They move pretty much in the manner of rabbits, though not near so swiftly; and when confined in a room seldom cross the floor, but generally keep along the wall. The male usually drives the female on before him, for they never move abreast together, but constantly the one seems to tread in the footsteps of the preceding. They chiefly seek for the darkest recesses and the most intricate retreats, where, if hay be spread as a bed for them, they continue to sleep together, and seldom venture out but when they suppose all interruption removed. On these occasions they act as rabbits; they move swiftly forward from their bed, stop at the entrance, listen, look round, and if they perceive the slightest approach of danger they precipitately run back. In very cold weather, however, they are more active, and run about to keep themselves warm.

They are a very cleanly animal, and quite different from that whose name they go by. If the young ones happen to fall into the dirt, or be in any other way discomposed, the female takes such an aversion to them that she never permits them to visit her more. Indeed her whole employment as well as that of the male seems to consist in smoothing their skins, in disposing their hair, and improving its gloss. The male and female take this office by turns; and when they have thus brushed up each other they then bestow all their concern upon their young, taking particular care to make their hair lie smooth, and biting them if they appear refractory. As they are so solicitous for elegance themselves, the place where they are kept must be regularly cleaned, and a new bed of hay provided for them at least once a week. Being natives of a warm climate they are naturally chilly in ours; cleanliness, therefore, assists warmth and expels moisture. They may be thus reared without the aid of any artificial heat; but in general there is no keeping them from the fire in winter if they be once permitted to approach it.

them with milk; and they are also capable of feeding upon vegetables almost from the very beginning. If the young ones are permitted to continue together, the more powerful ones, as in all other societies, soon begin to govern the weaker. Their contentions are often long and obstinate, and their jealousies very apparent. Their disputes are usually for the warmest place or the most agreeable food. If one of them happens to be more fortunate in this respect than the rest, the strongest generally comes to dispossess it of its advantageous situation. Their manner of fighting, though terrible to them, is ridiculous enough to a spectator. One of them seizes the hair on the nape of the other's neck with its fore-teeth, and attempts to tear it away; the other, to retaliate, turns its hinder parts to the enemy, and kieks up behind like a horse, and with its hinder claws scratches the sides of its adversary; so that sometimes they cover each other with blood. When they contend in this manner they gnash their teeth pretty loudly, and this is often a denunciation of mutual resentment.

These, though so formidable to each other, yet are the most timorous creatures upon earth with respect to the rest of Animated Nature: a falling leaf disturbs them, and every animal overcomes them. From hence they are difficultly tamed, and will suffer none to approach them except the person by whom they are fed. Their manner of eating is something like that of the rabbit; and, like it, they appear also to chew the cud. Although they seldom drink they make water every minute. They grunt somewhat like a young pig, and have a more piercing note to express pain. In a word, they do no injury; but then, except the pleasure they afford the spectator, they are of very little benefit to mankind. Some, indeed, dress and eat them; but their flesh is indifferent food, and by no means a reward for the trouble of rearing them. This, perhaps, might be improved by keeping them in a proper warren, and not suffering them to become domestic; however, the advantages that would result from this would be few, and the trouble great; so that it is likely they would continue an useless, inoffensive dependent, rather propagated to satisfy caprice than supply necessity.

AND OTHER SIMILAR KINDS.

BOOK VI.-CHAP. I.

THE RAT KIND.

These animals are extremely falacious, and generally are capable of coupling when six weeks old. The female never goes with young above five weeks, and usually brings forth from three to five at a time-and this not without pain. But what is most extraordinary, the female admits the male the very day she has brought forth, and again becomes pregnant; so that their multiplication is enormous. She suckles her young about twelve or fifteen days, and during that time does not seem to know her own; for if the young of any other be brought, though much older, she never drives them away, but suffers them even to drain her, to the disadvantage of her own immediate offspring. Although the dam has but two teats, yet she abundantly supplies

Were it necessary to distinguish animals of the rat kind from all others, we might describe them as having two large cutting teeth, like the hare kind, in each jaw; as covered with hare; and as not ruminating. These distinctions might serve to guide us, had we not too near an acquaintance with this noxious race to be mistaken in their kind. Their numbers, their minuteness, their vicinity, their vast multiplication, all sufficiently contribute to press them upon our observation and remind us of their existence. Indeed, if we look through the different ranks of animals, from the largest to the smallest, from the great elephant to the diminutive mouse, we shall find that we suffer greater injuries from the contemptible meanness of the one than the formidable invasions of the other. Against the elephant, the rhinoceros, or the lion we can oppose united strength, and by art make up the deficiencies of natural power; these we have driven in to their native solitudes, and obliged to continue at a distance in the most inconvenient regions and unhealthful climates. But it is otherwise with the little teizing race I am now describing: no force can be exerted against their unresisting timidity; no arts can

diminish their amazing propagation; millions may be at once destroyed, and yet the breach be repaired in the space of a very few weeks; and in proportion as Nature has denied them force it has supplied the defect by their fecundity.

THE GREAT RAT.-The animal best known at present, and in every respect the most mischievous, is the "great rat," which, though but a new comer into this country, has taken too secure a possession to be ever removed. This hateful and rapacious creature, though sometimes called the "rat of Norway," is utterly unknown in all the northern countries, and, by the best accounts I can learn, comes originally from the Levant. Its first arrival, as I am assured, was upon the coasts of Ireland, in those ships that traded in provisions to Gibraltar; and perhaps we owe to a single pair of these animals the numerous progeny that now infests the whole extent of the British Empire

This animal, which is called by Mr. Buffon the "surmalot," is in length about nine inches; its eyes are large and black; the colour of the head and the whole upper part of the body is of a light brown, mixed with a tawny and ash colour. The end of the nose, the throat, and belly are of a dirty white, inclining to grey; the feet and legs are almost bare, and of a dirty-pale flesh colour; the tail is as long as the body, covered with minute dusky scales, mixed with a few hairs, and adds to the general deformity of its detestable figure. It is chiefly in the colour that this animal differs from the "black rat," or the " common rat" as it was once called, but now common no longer. This new invader in a very few years after its arrival found means to destroy almost the whole species, and to possess itself of their retreats.

But it was not against the black rat alone that its rapacity was directed; all other animals of inferior strength shared the same misfortunes. The contest with the black rat was of short continuance. As it was unable to contend, and had no hole to fly to for safety but where its voracious enemy could pursue, the whole race was soon extinguished. The frog, also, was an animal equally incapable of combat or defence. It had been designedly introduced into Ireland some years before the Norway rat, and it was seen to multiply amazingly. The inhabitants were pleased with the propaga tion of a harmless animal, that served to rid their fields of insects; and even the prejudices of the people were in its favour, as they supposed that the frog contributed to render their waters more wholesome. But the Norway rat soon put a stop to their increase; as these animals were of an amphibious nature, they pursued the frog to its lakes, and took it even in its own natural element. I am therefore assured that the frog is once more nearly extinct in that country; and that the Norway rat, having no more enemies left there to destroy, is grown less numerous also

We are not likely, therefore, to gain by the destruction of our old domestics, since they are replaced by such mischievous successors. The Norway rat has the same disposition to injure us, with much greater power of mischief. It burrows in the banks of rivers, ponds, and ditches; and is every year known to do incredible damage to those mounds that are raised to conduct streams, or to prevent rivers from overflowing. In these holes, which it forms pretty near the edge of the water, it chiefly resides during the summer, where it lives upon small animals, fish, and corn. At the approach of winter it comes nearer the farm-houses, burrows in the corn, eats much, and damages still more than it consumes. But nothing that can be eaten seems to escape its voracity. It destroys rabbits, poultry, and all kinds of game; and, like the polecat, kills much more than it can carry away. It swims with great ease, dives with great celerity, and easily thins the fish-pond. In short, scarce any of the feebler animals escape its rapacity

except the mouse, which shelters itself in its hole, where the Norway rat is too big to follow.

These animals frequently produce from fifteen to thirty at a time, and usually bring forth three times a year. This great increase would quickly be found to over-run the whole country, and render our assiduity to destroy them fruitless, were it not, happily for us, that they eat and destroy each other. The same insatiable appetite that impels them to indiscriminate carnage also incites the strongest to destroy the weakest, even of their own kind. The large male rat generally keeps in a hole by itself, and is dreaded by its own species as their most formidable enemy. In this manner the number of these vermin is kept within due bounds; and when their increase becomes injurious to us it is modified by their own rapacity.

But beside their own enmities among each other, all the stronger carnivorous quadrupeds have natural antipathies against them. The dog, though he detests their Hesh, yet openly declares his alacrity to pursue them, and attacks them with great animosity. Such as are trained up to killing these vermin despatch them often with a single squeeze: but those dogs that show any hesitation are sure to come off but indifferently; for the rat always takes the advantage of a moment's delay, and instead of waiting for the attack becomes the aggressor, seizing its pursuer by the lip, and inflicting a very painful and dangerous wound. From the inflammation and other angry symptoms that attend this animal's bite, some have been led to think that it was in some measure venomous; but it is likely that the difficulty of the wound's healing arises merely from its being deep and lacerated by the teeth, and is rather a consequence of the figure of the instruments that inflict it than any venom they may be supposed to possess.

The cat is another formidable enemy of this kind; and yet the generality of our cats neither care to attack it nor to feed upon it when killed. The cat is a more prudent hunter than the dog, and will not be at the pains to take or combat with an enemy that is not likely to repay her time and danger. Some cats, however, will pursue and take the rat, though often not without an obstinate resistance. If hungry, the cat will sometimes eat the head; but in general she is merely content with her victory.

A foe much more dangerous to these vermin is the weasel. This animal pursues them with avidity; and being pretty nearly of their own size, follows them into their holes, where a desperate combat ensues. The strength of each is pretty nearly equal, but the arms are very different. The rat, furnished with four long tusks at the extremity of its jaw, rather snaps than bites; but where the weasel once fastens it holds, and, continuing to suck the blood at the same time, weakens its antagonist, and always obtains the victory. Mankind have contrived several other methods for destroying these noxious intruders-ferrets, traps, and more particularly poison; but of all other poisons I am told that the nux vomica, ground and mixed with meal, is the most certain, and it is the least dangerous.

To this species I will subjoin as a variety the "black rat," mentioned above, greatly resembling the former in figure, but very distinct in nature, as appears from their mutual antipathy. This animal was formerly as mischievous as it was common; but at present it is almost, utterly extirpated by the great rat-one malady often expelling another. It is become so scarce, that I do not remember ever to have seen one. It is said to be possessed of all the voracious and unnatural appetites of the former-though, as it is less, they may probably be less noxious. Its length is about six inches, and the tail is nearly eight. The colour of the body is of a deep iron-grey, bordering upon black, except the belly, which is of a dirty cinereous hue. They have propagated in America in great numbers, being originally introduced

from Europe; and as they seem to keep their ground wherever they get footing, they are now become the most noxious animals in that part of the world.

To this we may also subjoin the “black water-rat," about the same size as the above, but with a larger head, blunter nose, smaller eyes, and shorter ears, and the tip of its tail a little white. It was supposed by Ray to be web-footed; but this has been found to be a mistake, its toes much resembling those of its kind. It never frequents houses, but is usually found on the banks of rivers, ditches, and ponds, where it burrows and breeds. It feeds upon fish, frogs, and insects. In some countries it is eaten on fasting days.

THE MOUSE.-An animal equally mischievous and equally well known with the former is the mouse. Timid, cautious, and active, all its dispositions are simi lar to those of the rat, except that it has fewer powers of doing mischief. Fearful by nature, but familiar from necessity, it attends upon man, and comes an unbidden guest to his most delicate entertainments. Fear and necessity seem to regulate all its motions; it never leaves its hole but to seek provisions, and seldom ventures above a few paces from home. Different from the rat, it does not go from one house to another unless it be forced; and as it is more easily satisfied it does much less mischief.

Almost all animals are tamed with more difficulty in proportion to the cowardice of their natures. The truly bold and courageous easily become familiar, but those that are always fearful are ever suspicious. The mouse being the most feeble, and consequently the most timid, of all quadrupeds except the Guinea-pig, it is never rendered thoroughly familiar, and, even though fed in a cage, retains its natural apprehensions. In fact, it is to these alone that it owes its security. No animal has more enemies, and few so incapable of resistance. The owl, the cat, the snake, the hawk, the weasel, the rat itself, destroy this species by millions, and it only sub sists by its amazing fecundity.

The mouse brings forth at all seasons, and several times in a year. Its usual number is from six to ten. These in less than a fortnight are strong enough to run about and shift for themselves. They are chiefly found in farmers' yards and among their corn, but are seldom found in those ricks that are much infested with rats. They generally choose the south-west side of the rick, from whence most rain is expected; and from thence they often of an evening venture forth to drink the little drops either of rain or dew that hang at the extremity of the straw. Aristotle gives us an idea of their prodigious fecundity, by assuring us that, having put a mouse with young into a vessel of corn, in some time after he found a hundred and twenty mice all sprung from one original. The early growth of this animal also implies the short duration of its life, which seldom lasts above two or three years. This species is very much diffused, being found in almost all parts of the ancient continent, and have been exported to the new. They are animals that, while they fear human society, closely attend it; and although enemies to man, they are never found but near those places where he has fixed his habitation. Numberless ways have been found for destroying them; and Gesner has minutely described the variety of traps by which they are taken.

To this species, merely to avoid teizing the reader with a minute description of animals very inconsiderable and very nearly alike, I will add that of the "long-tailed field-mouse," which is larger than the former, in colour nearly resembling the Norway rat, and chiefly found in fields and gardens. They are extremely voracious, and hurtful in gardens and young nurseries, where they are killed in great numbers. However, their fecundity soon repairs the destruction.

Nearly resembling the former, but larger (for it is six

inches long), is the "short-tailed field-mouse," which, as its name implies, has the tail much shorter than the former, it being not above an inch and a half long, and ending in a small tuft. Its colour is more inclining to that of the domestic mouse, the upper part being blackish and the under of an ash-colour. This as well as the former is remarkable for laying up provisions against winter; and Mr. Buffon assures us they sometimes have a store of above a bushel at a time.

We may also add the "shrew-mouse" to this species of minute animals, being about the size of the domestic mouse, but differing greatly from it in the form of its nose, which is very long and slender. The teeth, also, are of a very singular form, and twenty-eight in number; whereas the common number in the rat kind is usually not above sixteen. The two upper fore-teeth are very sharp, and on each side there is a kind of wing or beard, like that of an arrow, scarce visible but on a close inspection. The other teeth are placed close together, being very small, and seeming scarce separated; so that with respect to this part of its formation the animal has some resemblance to the viper. However, it is a very harmless little creature, doing scarce any injury; on the contrary, as it lives chiefly in the fields and feeds more upon insects than corn, it may be considered rather as a friend than an enemy. It has a strong, disagreeable smell, so that the cat when it is killed will refuse to eat it. It is said to bring four or five young at a time.

THE DORMOUSE.-These animals may be distinguished into three kinds-the "greater dormouse," which Mr. Buffon calls the "loir;" the "middle," which he calls the " lerot;" the "less," which he denominates the "muscardin." They differ from each other in size, the largest being equal to a rat, the least being no bigger than a mouse. They all differ from the rat in having the tail tufted with hair in the manner of a squirrel, except that the squirrel's tail is flat, resembling a fan; and theirs round, resembling a brush. The lerot differs from the loir by having two black spots near the eyes; the muscardin differs from both in the whitish colour of its hair on the back. They all three agree in having black sparkling eyes, and the whiskers partly white and partly black. They agree in their being stupified like the marmout during winter, and in their hoarding up provisions to serve them in case of a temporary revival.

They inhabit the woods or very thick hedges, forming their nests in the hollow of some tree, or near the bottom of a close shrub, humbly content with continuing at the bottom, and never aspiring to sport among the branches. Towards the approach of the cold season they form little magazine of nuts, beans, or acorns, and having laid in their hoard shut themselves up with it for the winter. As soon as they feel the first advances of the cold, they prepare to lessen its effect by rolling themselves up in a ball and thus exposing the smallest surface to the weather. But it often happens that the warmth of a sunny day or an accidental change from cold to heat thaws their nearly stagnant fluids, and they revive. On such occasions they have their provisions laid in, and they have not far to seek for their support. In this manner they continue usually asleep, but sometimes waking, for about five months in the year, seldom venturing from their retreats, and, consequently, but rarely seen. Their nests are lined with moss, grass, and dead leaves; they usually bring forth three or four young at a time, and that but once a year, in the spring.

THE MUSK RAT.-Of these animals of the rat kind, but with a musky smell, there are also three distinctions, as of the former-the “ondatra,” the “desman,” and the "pilori." The ondatra is a native of Canada, the desman of Lapland, and the pilori of the West India islands. The ondatra differs from all others of its kind, in having the tail flatted and carried edge-ways. The

desman has a long extended snout, like the shrew-mouse; and the pilori a short tail, as thick at one end as the other They all resemble each other in being fond of the water, but particularly in that musky odour from whence they have taken their name.

Of these the "ondatra" is the most remarkable, and has been the most minutely described. This animal is about the size of a small rabbit, but has the hair, the colour, and the tail of a rat, except that it is flatted on the sides as mentioned above. But it is still more extraordinary upon other accounts, and different from all other animals whatever. It is so formed that it can contract and enlarge its body at pleasure. It has a muscle like that of horses, by which they move their hides, lying immediately under the skin, and that furnished with such a power of contraction, together with such an elasticity in the false ribs, that this animal can creep into a hole where others, seemingly much less, cannot follow. The female is remarkable also for two distinct apertures, one for urine, the other for propagation. The male is equally observable for a peculiarity of conformation; the musky smell is much stronger at one particular season of the year than another; and the marks of the sex seem to appear and disappear in the same manner.

The ondatra in some measure resembles the beaver in its nature and disposition They both live in society during winter; they both form houses of two feet and a half wide, in which they reside several families together. In these they do not assemble to sleep as the marmout, but purely to shelter themselves from the rigour of the season. However, they do not lay up magazines of provision like the beaver; they only form a kind of covert way to and round their dwelling, from whence they issue to procure water and roots, upon which they subsist. During winter their houses are covered under a depth of eight or ten feet of snow; so that they must lead but a cold, gloomy, and necessitous life during its continuance. During summer they separate two by two, and feed upon the variety of roots and vegetables that the season offers. They then become extremely fat, and are much sought after, as well for their flesh as their skins, which are very valuable. They then also acquire a very strong scent of musk, so pleasing to an European, but which the savages of Canada cannot abide. What we admire as a perfume they consider as a most abominable stench, and call one of their rivers, on the banks of which this animal is seen to burrow in numbers, by the name of the "stinking river," as well as the rat itself, which is denominated by them the "stinkard." This is a strange diversity among mankind, and, perhaps, may be ascribed to the different kinds of food among different nations. Such as chiefly feed upon rancid oils and putrid flesh will often mistake the nature of scents; and, having been long used to ill smells, will by habit consider them as purfumes. Be this as it will, although these nations of northern savages consider the musk rat as intolerably foetid, they nevertheless regard it as very good eating; and, indeed, in this they exactly imitate the epicures of Europe, whose taste seldom relishes a dish till the nose gives the strongest marks of disapprobation. As to the rest, this animal a good deal resembles the beaver in its habits and disposition; but as its instincts are less powerful and its economy less exact, I will reserve for the description of that animal a part of what may be applicable to this.

THE CRICETUS.-The cricetus, or German rat, which Mr. Buffon calls the "bamster," greatly resembles the water-rat in size, in its small eyes, and in the shortness of its tail. It differs in colour, being rather browner, like the Norway rat, with the belly and legs of a dirty yellow. But the marks by which it may be distinguished from all others are two pouches, like those of a baboon, on each side of its jaw, under the skin, into which it

can cram a large quantity of provision. These bags are oblong, and of the size, when filled, of a large walnut. They open into the mouth, and fall back along the neck to the shoulder. Into these the animal can thrust the surplus of those fruits or grains it gathers in the fields, such as wheat, peas, or acorns. When the immediate calls of hunger are satisfied it then falls to filling these; and thus loaded with two great bunches on each side of the jaw, it returns home to its hole to deposit the spoil as a store for the winter. The size, the fecundity, and the voraciousness of this animal render it one of the greatest pests in the countries where it is found, and every method is made use of to destroy it.

But although this animal is very noxious with respect to man, yet, considered with regard to those instincts which conduce to its own support and convenience, it deserves our admiration. Its hole offers a curious object for contemplation, and shows an amount of skill superior to the rest of the rat kind. It consists of a variety of apartments, fitted up for the different occasions of the little inhabitant. It is generally made on an inclining ground, and always has two entrances, one perpendicular and the other oblique; though should there be more than one in a family there are as many perpendicular holes as there are animals below. The perpendicular hole is usually that through which they go in and out; the oblique serves to give a thorough air to keep the retreat clean, and, in case one hole is blocked up, to give an exit at this. Within about a foot of the perpendicular hole the animal makes two more, where the family's provisions are deposited. These are much more spacious than the former, and are large in proportion to the quantity of the store. Beside these, there is still another apartment warmly lined with grass and straw, where the female brings forth her young; these communicate with each other, and altogether take up a space of ten or twelve feet in diameter. These animals furnish their store-houses with dry corn well cleaned; they also lay in corn in the ear, and beans and peas in the pod. When occasion requires they separate them, carrying out the pods and empty ears by their oblique passage. They usually begin to lay in at the latter end of August; and as each magazine is filled they carefully cover up the mouth with earth, and that so neatly that, it is no easy matter to discover where the earth has been removed. The only means of finding out their retreats are to observe the oblique entrance, which generally has a small quantity of earth before it; and this, though often several yards from their perpendicular retreat, leads those who are skilled in the search to make the discovery. Many German peasants are known to make a livelihood by finding out and bringing off their hoards, which in a fruitful season frequently furnish two bushels of good grain in each apartment.

Like most others of the rat kind they produce twice or thrice a year, and bring five or six at a time. Some years they appear in alarming numbers; at other time: they are not in such plenty. The moist seasons assis: their propagation; and it often happens in such years that their devastations produce a famine all over the country. Happily, however, for mankind, these like the rest of their kind destroy each other; and of two that Mr. Buffon kept in a cage, male and female, the latter killed and devoured the former. As to the rest,' their fur is considered very valuable. The natives are invited by rewards to destroy them; and the weasel kind seconds the wishes of government with great suc cess. Although they are usually found brown on the back and white on the belly, yet many of them are observed to be grey, which may probably arise from the difference of age.

THE LEMING. Having considered the various kinds of these noxious little animals that elude the indigna