A Wave of Life. 61 
{ kept an armadillo at this time, and good cheer 
and the sedentary life he led in captivity made him 
excessively fat ; but the mousing exploits of even 
this individual were most interesting. Occasionally 
I took him into the fields to give him a taste of 
liberty, though at such times I always took the 
precaution to keep hold of a cord fastened to one of 
his hind legs; for as often as he came to a kennel 
of one of his wild fellows, he would attempt to 
escape into it. He invariably travelled with an 
ungainly trotting gait, carrying his nose, beagle- 
like, close to the ground. His sense of smell was 
exceedingly acute, and when near his prey he 
became agitated, and quickened his motions, pausing 
frequently to sniff the earth, till, discovering the 
exact spot where the mouse lurked, he would stop 
and creep cautiously to it; then, after slowly raising 
himself to a sitting posture, spring suddenly for- 
wards, throwing his body like a trap over the mouse, 
or nest of mice, concealed beneath the grass. 
A curious instance of intelligence in a cat was 
brought to my notice at this time by one of my 
neighbours, a native. His children had made the 
discovery that some excitement and fun was to be 
had by placing a long hollow stalk of the giant 
thistle with a mouse in it—and every hollow stalk 
at this time had one for a tenant—before a cat, and 
then watching her movements. Smelling her prey, 
she would spring at one end of the stalk—the end to- 
wards which the mouse would be moving at the 
same time, but would catch nothing, for the mouse, 
instead of running out, would turn back to run to 
the other end; whereupon the cat, all excitement, 
