98 THE GNAWERS 



a rose larger than itself, which it hid in a closet. To this 

 it added a cigar and other objects, all of no value to itself ; 

 and this is the peculiarity of the wood rat, about whose 

 eccentricities much could be written. 



In one camp, the wood rats stole candles, tooth brushes, 

 papers, matches, corks, soap, a brush, combs, collars, 

 everything they could carry off, working always at night, 

 and hiding the articles among the rafters of the cabin. 



Fig. 8i. — Lemmings. 



In another camp a watch disappeared and was found in a 

 wood rat's nest two hundred feet away. These rats in one 

 night took barley enough from a sack to fill the tall boots 

 of a driver, — a vast work performed merely in mischief. 



The lemmings (Fig. 8i) are rathke creatures of North- 

 ern Europe, famous in the annals of the marvelous as 

 migrants. At certain times they collect in vast numbers 

 and move over the country like an army of locusts, eating 

 everything as they proceed. They hold to one general 



