234 THE FLOEAL WOELD AND GAEDEN GUIDE. 



INVADERS, VISITORS, AND SETTLERS IN OUR 



GARDENS. 



UR gardens are sometimes invaded by a wild species of 

 quadruped which comes into them at times, seeking, as 

 do mosb wild beasts, that which it may devour — scram- 

 bling in the first instance over our walls, or making its 

 way through holes in our palirigs, or gaps in our hedges, 

 in its search after food. It is of course not a lion, or tiger, nor even 

 a lynx or fox ; but however it may differ from all these creatures in 

 its outward appearance, it has really much that is like them in thje 

 structure of its body, for all quadrupeds are like each other in the 

 form and arrangement of the bones which compose their skeletons ; 

 just as in the construction of houses there is much that is alike in 

 the beams and rafters, however in their external appearance they 

 may differ from each other. In the skeletons of all quadrupeds ia 

 found the backbone, or spine, composed of many separate vertebrce, 

 or small bones fitted into each other, so as to make the whole 

 flexible, with the skull at the end, which contains the brain. 

 Branching out from the backbone, or spine, are the ribs, which 

 bend round and protect some of the most tender internal parts 

 of the body ; while in the bones of the four legs, there is much 

 alike in every quadruped, both in their form and arrangement, aa 

 well as in the muscles which move them in life. It is therefore 

 in size that the invader whom we are going to describe differs most 

 from any other quadrupeds that roam wild about the forests and 

 deserts ; and in this respect the difference is very great. In the 

 skeleton of the elephant, for instance, which is the largest of all 

 quadrupeds, we know that it is composed of thick, heavy, solid 

 bones, almost as hard and strong as if made of iron or stone, while 

 the whole skeleton is perhaps two and a half yards in length ; and 

 in the case of the animal which sometimes invades our gardens, the 

 bones of which it is composed are as fine and delicate as if carved in 

 ivory, and the whole being but about two and a half inches long, it 

 coald easily lie in the palm of our hand — for the creature of which 

 we are speaking is but a mouse, the very smallest of all quadrupeds. 

 Two or three different kinds of mice come to us at times from 

 the fields, and if they find that they can supply themselves with 

 food enough among our vegetables, and such seeds and fruits as are 

 to be found lying under our trees, and especially if we happen to 

 grow Indian corn, or have some bushes of hazel-nuts and filberts — 

 if only such delicious provender as this is to be reckoned on which 

 can be stored up, they will become settlers with us, and make their 

 nests in some sheltered nook beneath the root of a tree, or under a 

 tuft of grass, or in some cranny in a wall, and lining it carefully 

 with moss and dead leaves and hay, will there live and bring forth, 

 and rear their young. As they have usually as many as six or seven 

 young ones at a time, and two or three families in a year, it will 

 make all the difference to us and our gardener when such invaders 

 become settlers. 



The mouse which most often lives in our gardens is the wood- 



