CHAPTER VI 



GNAWING ANIMALS— RODENTS 



This order includes a very large collection of small 

 animals, ranging in size as to its British representa- 

 tives from the tiny harvest mouse to the hare, hot 

 rodents of various sizes are found all over the world. 

 They are mammals walking for the most part on the 

 soles of their feet, not on their toes, and only a few 

 are carnivorous. Pussy treading softly on her toes 

 stalks the mouse running lightly on the soles of its 

 dainty feet. The house mouse is a typical rodent 

 with which everyone is familiar. With the rat we 

 are fortunately not all so familiar, since it becomes 

 a veritable plague, not only eating and destroying 

 our property, but carrying the germs of disease in 

 its coat. 



The peculiar teeth of these gnawing animals will 

 enable us to distinguish any member of the order at 

 once. In the lower jaw there is a single pair of 

 chisel-like incisors, and these meet a similar pair in 

 the upper jaw, where there may also be a second 

 pair of incisors as in the hare and rabbit, but they 

 are always small and never present in the lower jaw. 

 These two pairs of incisor teeth of the upper and 



