328 APPENDICES. 



vor of five or six which were shipped at the same time, and it 

 was in a very pitiable condition. Good treatment quickly restored 

 it to health, and kindness soon made it familiar. When called 

 by its name, ' Binny,' it generally answered with a little cry, and 

 came to its owner. The hearth-rug was its favorite haunt, and 

 thereon it would lie stretched out, sometimes on its back, some- 

 times on its side, and sometimes flat on its belly, but always near 

 its master. The building instinct showed itself immediately it was 

 let out of its cage and materials were placed in its way ; and 

 this before it had been a week in its new quarters. Its strength, 

 even before it was half grown, was great. It would drag along 

 a large sweeping-brush, or a warming-pan, grasping the handle 

 with its teeth so that the • load came over its shoulder, and ad- 

 vancing in an oblique direction till it arrived at the point where 

 it wished to place it. The long and large materials were always 

 taken first, and two of the longest were generally laid crosswise, 

 with one of the ends of each touching the wall, and the other 

 ends projecting out into the room. The area formed by the 

 crossed brushes and the wall he would fill up with hand-brushes, 

 rush baskets, books, boots, sticks, cloths, dried turf, or anything 

 portable. As the work grew high, he supported himself o-n 

 his tail, which propped him up admirably, and he would often, 

 after laying on one of his building materials, sit up over against 

 it, appearing to consider his work, or, as the country people say, 

 'judge it.' This pause was sometimes followed by changing 

 the position of the material 'judged,' and sometimes it was left 

 in its place. After he had piled up his materials in one part of 

 the room (for he generally chose the same place), he proceeded 

 to wall up the space between the feet of a chest of drawers, which 

 stood, at a little distance from it, high enough on its legs to make 

 the bottom a roof for him, using for this purpose dried turf and 

 sticks, which he laid very even, and filling up the interstices with 

 bits of coal, hay, cloth, or anything he could pick up. This last 

 place he seemed to appropriate for his dwelling ; the former work 

 seemed to be intended for a dam. When he had walled up the 

 space between the feet of the chest of drawers, he proceeded to 

 carry in sticks, cloths, hay, cotton, and to make a nest ; and 

 when he had done he would sit up under the drawers and comb 

 himself with the nails of his hind feet. In this operation, that 



