pasture, without the odd, long-legged appearance of the lamb, but they make up for this by humping up their backs like small dromedaries. They get to tumbling over one another in a comic, clown-like way, they run, galop, trot, and hop, and sit erect on their haunches. This latter action they perform in expectation of a mouse, a special delicacy with them, though but a mouthful, from the keepers leaning over the pens above. Upon the whole they seem to be enjoying life immensely, presenting quite a study of animal contentment and happiness. III.--RAT HUNTING. When the word rat is mentioned in connection with the ferret, our pacific scene is changed to one of war and bloodshed. The savage instincts of the animal are then aroused, and the rat itself knows, when it has caught the ferret's scent, that its time has come. There are no two animals more deadly enemies than these, the ferret being constructed in such a way that it is best adapted to hunt the rat in the rat's own haunts. Wherever a rat can go a ferret can go, because the latter's body is as flexible as rubber, and it can squeeze itself up, draw itself out, and flatten its limbs into a likeness of a New England buckwheat cake, as if there wasn't a bone in its body. The weasels, and nearly all wild animals of this division, after killing the prey suck the blood, eat the brain, leave the rest of the body untouched, and then proceed to annihilate the next victim, repeating the operation. Here is where the difference between the ferret and the other animals of its tribe comes in, for it does not content itself with brain food and such ethereal substances, but devours the whole carcass with a fine relish, not even leaving the tail or the skin. It bolts the bones and everything else thereto appertaining. It is rather an appalling experience for the first time to hear the hungry ferret's teeth go crunch, crunch, as they meet in the neck of some fat rodent. This sound bears a resemblance to a cowboy chewing radishes. A very hungry ferret would commence to devour the rat before it had thoroughly made its exit into the sweet subsequently. In using ferrets to clear a house of rats, they should be allowed to nose through the building during the night with the same freedom accorded a domestic animal. During the day they are kept in the pen. The reason a ferret should be hunted with in the night is that it sees better then, and that it is instinctively better fitted for hunting. The rats also become more venturesome at this time. When the ferrets are to be hunted with, feed them slightly, as feeding blunts their hunting capabilities and makes them worthless. After a good feed a ferret will sleep harder than any other domestic animal. Sometimes you will find a ferret so hard asleep that you can take him up, shake him, and then put him down again without waking him. If you are inexperienced in the ways of the ferret, you will imagine you have a corpse on your hands.