_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.
[Illustration: _Photo by W. P. Dando_] [_Regent's Park._
CAPYBARA.
This, the largest of the Rodents, is found by the rivers of South America.]
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.
[Illustration: _By permission of Professor Bumpus, New York._
FLYING-SQUIRREL.
One of the small species of the group.]
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.
[Illustration: _Photo by A. S. Rudland & Sons._
FLYING-SQUIRREL.
The large flying-squirrels are mainly nocturnal. They can leap a distance
of 40 feet with the aid of the parachutes of skin stretching from the fore
to the hind limbs.]
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.
[Illustration: _Photo by W. P. Dando_] [_Regent's Park._
DORSAL SQUIRREL FROM CENTRAL AMERICA.
A most beautiful species. The main colour is red, but the back is French
grey, and the tail French grey and red mingled.]
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.
[Illustration: _Photo by A. S. Rudland & Sons._
ASIATIC CHIPMUNKS.
Small ground-squirrels which store food for the winter.]
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.
[Illustration: _Photo by W. P. Dando_] [_Regent's Park._
RED-FOOTED GROUND-SQUIRREL.
This species has some of the characteristics of the tree-squirrels, among
them the bushy tail.]
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.
[Illustration: _Photo by Dr. R. W. Shufeldt_] [_Washington._
BLACK FOX-SQUIRREL.
The fur of this species is as valuable as that of the grey squirrel.]
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.
[Illustration: _Photo by Scholastic Photo. Co._] [_Parson's Green._
LONG-TAILED MARMOT.
The marmots live by preference on high and cold mountains just below the
line of eternal snow in Europe. In Asia, where the snow-line is higher,
they are found at altitudes of 12,000 feet.]
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.
[Illustration: _By permission of the New York Zoological Society._
PRAIRIE-DOGS, OR MARMOTS.
A most characteristic picture. It shows the prairie-dogs' method of holding
their food while they eat, or cutting up grass to make their beds.]
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.
[Illustration: _By permission of the New York Zoological Society._
AMERICAN BEAVER.
The engineering feats of the beavers, in damming streams and forming pools,
are the most remarkable achievements performed by living animals.]
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.
[Illustration: _Photo by C. Reid_] [_Wishaw, N.B._
BEAVER.
The beaver here shown was kept as a pet. It was photographed upon a stream
in Scotland. The long upper fur is removed when the skin is prepared by the
furrier.]
[Illustration: _Photo by C. Reid_] [_Wishaw, N.B._
BEAVER.
This is a photograph of a swimming beaver. Note the advantage which it has
taken of the eddy in the stream.]
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.
[Illustration: _Photo by Dr. R. W. Shufeldt_] [_Washington._
MUSK-RAT.
A small water rodent, a native of the North American rivers. Immense
numbers are killed for the sake of their fur.]
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.
[Illustration: _Photo by W. P. Dando_] [_Regent's Park._
GAMBIAN POUCHED RAT.
These rats are able to carry food in their cheek-pouches, which are used as
pockets.]
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.
[Illustration: _Photo by A. S. Rudland & Sons._
POCKET-GOPHER.
The pocket-gophers are almost entirely subterranean. Their burrowing powers
are remarkable. The teeth as well as claws are used to aid them.]
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.
[Illustration: _Photo by A. S. Rudland & Sons._
LONG-EARED JERBOA.
These curious little animals are mainly desert creatures. They move by a
series of leaps.]
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.
[Illustration: _Photo by A. S. Rudland & Sons._
CAPE JUMPING-HARE.
This animal is very common in South Africa. The Boers call it the
"Springhaas."]
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.
[Illustration: _Photo by A. S. Rudland & Sons._
OCTODONT.
The octodonts, so called because they have four molar teeth on each side of
the jaw, are a group of rodents found mainly in South America.]
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.
[Illustration: _Photo by L. Midland, F.Z.S._] [_North Finchley._
COYPU.
This is a large aquatic rodent, found on the South American rivers. Its
fur, called "nutria," forms a valuable export from Argentina.]
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.
[Illustration: _Photo by A. S. Rudland & Sons._
SHORT-TAILED HUTIA.
The hutias are another group of octodonts, found in the West India
Islands.]
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.
[Illustration: _By permission of the Hon. Walter Rothschild, Tring._
PORCUPINE.
The common porcupine is found in Italy, Spain, and North Africa. This one
was kept by Mr. Rothschild, who had it photographed by Mr. S. G. Payne, of
Aylesbury.]
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.
[Illustration: _Photo by A. S. Rudland & Sons._
PORCUPINE.
This photograph shows the arrangement of the porcupine's defence of spines;
but when frightened it erects these, so as to form a complete protection to
the body.]
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.
[Illustration: _Photo by W. P. Dando_] [_Regent's Park._
VISCACHA.
The viscacha form colonies like those of the prairie-dogs. It is found on
the pampas north of the La Plata.]
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.
[Illustration: _Photo by the Duchess of Bedford, Woburn Abbey._
CHAPMAN'S ZEBRAS.
These zebra have for some years been running loose in the park at Woburn
Abbey.]
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.
[Illustration: _Photo by W. P. Dando_] [_Regent's Park._
CHINCHILLA.
A small rodent of the Andes, possessing very soft and valuable grey fur.]
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.
[Illustration: _Photo by York & Son_] [_Notting Hill._
AGUTIS.
The agutis are also a South American group, found both in the forests and
on the plains.]
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.
[Illustration: _Photo by A. S. Rudland & Sons._
PACA, OR SPOTTED CAVY.
The pacas are among the larger rodents, found mainly in the northern part
of the South American region.]
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.
[Illustration: _Photo by York & Son_] [_Notting Hill._
PACAS, OR SPOTTED CAVIES.
This photograph, which represents young animals, shows in great perfection
the linear arrangement of the stripes.]
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.
[Illustration: _Photo by Scholastic Photo. Co._] [_Parson's Green._
PATAGONIAN CAVY.
This large species of cavy has been acclimatised successfully both in
England and in France.]
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.
[Illustration: _By permission of Professor Bumpus_] [_New York._
WOOD-HARE.
This is one of the forms intermediate between the hares and rabbits.]
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.
[Illustration: _Photo by C. Reid_] [_Wishaw, N.B._
WILD RABBITS.
The wild rabbit has now spread to the north of Scotland, where this picture
was taken. It is also common in the Hebrides.]
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.
----