128 Mr. Ocizsy on certain Australian Quadrupeds, 
municating the intelligence of any strange or uncommon event to distant tribes 
by raising dense columns of smoke in different directions over the face of the 
country, and we fancied that these were their rude telegraphs, kept ready for 
immediate use when an occasion occurred to require it. A more minute exa- 
mination, however, soon convinced us of our error; we found, in fact, that 
the materials were not thrown promiscuously together, as would naturally 
have been the case had they been collected by the natives for the purpose of 
burning, but that each stick and fragment was so curiously intertwined and 
woven with the rest, that the whole formed a solid compact mass, so firmly 
bound together, that it was absolutely impossible to remove a part without at 
the same time moving the whole fabric. Our kangaroo dogs also drew our 
attention more particularly to the examination of these curious structures, by 
the constant ardour which they displayed in barking and scratching when- 
ever we fell in with them, thus manifestly intimating that they expected to 
find something inside. At length we broke several of them open, a work of 
no small difficulty from the solidity of their structure, and were not a little 
surprised to find in the interior a small nest occupied by an animal something 
between a rabbit and a rat, which had constructed this formidable and mas- 
sive stronghold to protect itself against the attacks of the native dog. For 
this purpose the little animal chooses some small bush or shrub, as a fixed 
point d'appui to commence its operations; and by gradually working round 
this, and interlacing the materials of its fortalice, first of all with the growing 
branches of the centre bush, and afterwards with one another, gradually ex- 
tends it to the enormous dimensions already specified, and enjoys the reward 
of its perseverance and ingenuity in subsequent security and repose. "This 
little animal has ears exactly resembling those of a small rabbit, soft, downy 
wool, and short hind legs, and, but for the tail, might readily pass for a small 
rabbit." 
Something of this constructive faculty 
Tamias, but in neither of these genera i 
Conilurus. Mr. Say, indeed, relates t 
nest of the“ burrs of Xanthium, portions of the upright Cactus, small branches 
of pine trees, and other vegetable 
| productions, sufficient in some instances to 
fill a cart,” but these do not appear to be artificially woven together, as in the 
is observed among the Squirrels and 
s it developed so perfectly as in the 
hat the Tamia quadrivitiata makes a 
