After twenty-four hours of captivity, I gave it cracked oats, uncooked, but soaked in milk. This it ate heartily. After it had been thirty-six hours in the box, I let it out in the room, and it at once ran about looking for some place to dig. I threw a large woollen mitten on the floor, and that it soon found, crept into it, thrust its head into the thumb, and remained quiet for some hours. I kept it for several days, during which time it drank water, ate oats soaked in milk, and also took a little raw meat. It pulled and tore at the carpet and upholstery, seeking for places to burrow, but remained for the most of the time in the mitten. A mole’s skeleton is a nice curiosity for a museum, and is easily prepared. A mole can be quickly and painlessly killed by a sharp blow just back of the head. After it is skinned, lay the carcass near a large hill of ants, or at the edge of a pond, where there are plenty of tadpoles, and soon only the clean white skeleton will remain. Wash this in hot water and ammonia, and dry it in the sun; then mount it carefully on a little board covered with black, which will set the small white bones in good relief. These studies of swimming, flying, and burrowing mammals suggest to us the diversity which exists in the great class of mammalian animals. On the ground, and under the ground, in the water, in the air, on the trees, we find the mammals, and at first it might seem impossible to bring order out of this confusion, and divide these almost innumerable creatures into their proper groups. But a careful study of these varied forms has enabled scientists to divide them according to their most peculiar characteristics, putting orders, sub-orders, and families together according to their closest relationships. So, when we study these animals, we are able to decide upon their names and places in the class mammalia. And like all else that is orderly, this classification becomes presently clear and simple. Let us now set the various divisions of the vertebrate animals in a table which can be easily understood, and will be found convenient for reference. The vertebrate or backboned animals are divided into-- Fishes, Amphibians, Reptiles, Birds, Mammals. The mammals are divided into various orders beginning with the monotremes, the lowest form of mammalian life, and closing with man, the highest form. So our table stands-- Monotremes: duck-bill, echidna. Marsupials: having a pouch for the young--kangaroo, opossum. Edentata: having no teeth on the front of the jaw; sloth, etc. Cetacea: fish-like creatures, eating animal food--whales, dolphins. Sirenia: fish-like creatures eating vegetable food. Insect-eaters: mole, hedge-hog, etc. Hand-winged creatures: the bats and vampires. Rodents, or gnawers: with chisel-like front teeth; rats, beavers, etc. Ungulates or hoofed {even-toed; as cow, sheep, deer, etc. {uneven-toed; as hog, horse, elephant, etc.