238 Natural History. 
vering to one side, and escaped. 
weighed on trial upwards of a 
chanical disadvantages of a 
pens position of the shrew 
succeeded in pushing th 
The book and the bone togetl 
pound; and, considering th 
smooth, glassy surface, and of t 
while effecting his liberation, this 
gree of strength that surpassed my | 
ken the little prisoner, I confined him 1 
with masses of rotten wood, paper « 2 
as I turned him into his new habitation > has epee to the bot- 
tom of the box, and commenced makin ad 
satisfactory, arrangement of the smaller pieces of 08 
fragments seattered below ; his object appearing more partict larly 
to be, to block up the intpek openings around him. ‘This task he ~ 
accomplished with much skill, first dragging and fitting the larger 
pieces to the apertures, and then filling up the interstices with 
fragments of smaller size; after this he crumbled with his teeth 
the projecting and more accessible parts, and the powder falling 
into the remaining spaces completed a hiding place. Having — 
thus barricaded his retreat, and otherwise strengthened his fron- 
tier, he spent some time in reconnoitering the more central 
parts, and appeared to run with great delight, in the most lively 
manner, through all the windings and irregularities of his new 
abode, peeping out in rapid succession, and snufling the air, 
at the various holes he had left for egress and ingress. It was 
quite entertaining, during these incessant motions, to listen to his 
seemingly gleeful rushes through his tortuous apartments, and to 
watch with pleasing uncertainty the various orifices, to see at 
which he would next thrust out his nose. After having thus fa- 
miliarized himself to the different routes by which he might re- 
treat in case of danger, he began to snatch and jerk into the inte- 
rior such portions of paper and rags as were nearest at hand; 
these I afterward found he cut into small pieces, and formed into 
a neat little bed. 
These preparatory employments being over, he began to pro- — 
trude his body with great caution from a hole which appeared to | 
be a favorite outlet, but started back with the utmost precipita- 
tion upon the slightest noise, and in a moment after he would 
slily peep out at some other dpeiting. At length, having ventured — 
entirely out, he seized a large earth-worm which I had thrown — 
into the ‘box, the very instant it was perceived, and in spite 
Having reta- 
