I made a practice of testing these pretty little fellows’ knowledge of nuts. When I gave them cracked hickory nuts, they at once sat down, picked out the meats, and ate them. Cracked nuts were evidently not fit for storage. Sitting on their haunches, holding the cracked nuts to their mouths with their hands and using their incisors for nut-picks, these creatures were a pretty sight. When I gave them whole nuts, they tested them, evidently by weight, to see if they were sound. Sound nuts were promptly carried to the storehouse; poor nuts were dropped. I never knew these animals to make a mistake. I cracked the rejected nuts, and never found one of them good. When walnuts or other hard-shelled nuts that have been emptied by squirrels are examined, and the cleanness and accuracy of the cutting is noted, we get some notion of those beautiful cutting tools, the incisors. Likewise the wood chiselled by the beaver bears witness to the excellence of the tools bestowed upon this order of animals. The gnawers are found in most parts of the world; the deep snows of Siberia are tracked by the agile feet of the squirrel, the hamster, and the economic mouse. Cold Norway has hordes of rats, as well as squirrels and rabbits. Italy is the only country free from the ravages of the fieldmouse. In English gardens the dormice love to make their homes. Rats and mice live wherever men live. Africa possesses the sand rat and the brilliant mole rat, which wears a scarlet coat shining with the iris tints of the rainbow. The jerboas, with their short fore legs, and their curiously long hind legs, jump about in Tartary, Russia, and the African forests. South America has a monopoly of chinchillas and guinea-pigs. The porcupine is an inhabitant of three-quarters of the globe. Once the beaver built its dams and burrows over nearly all North America, and now every woodland abounds in squirrels and rabbits; almost every river-side has its musk-rats; every barn and nearly every house is infested with rats and mice. Thousands of hares are every winter brought into the English markets. In fact, wherever you go you can hear the busy teeth of the rodents, gnawing their way through the world. FOOTNOTES: [89] Chapters 48, 49, and 50 give but brief glimpses of numerous well-known mammals. The object has been merely to call attention to peculiarities of structure and other points of interest, and thus encourage the pupil to seek more extended information in larger works. [90] Hares are given to wandering about at night, and porcupines often feed and travel by day. LESSON XLIX. ODD TOES. “A thousand horse, and none to ride! With flowing tail, and flying mane, Wide nostrils never stretched by pain, Mouths bloodless of the bit or rein, And feet that iron never shod!” --BYRON.