SMALL QUADRUPEDS. 301 



yet millions of them do this every year in Brazil when 

 the Amazon overflows its banks. The hungry natives 

 gather them from the tree-tops, where they are found 

 sticking like those fishes which Horace mentions in 

 his second ode. 



" Mole " in the Bible is variously translated : 

 chameleon, ibis, salamander, centipede, and swan ! 



Rodent. At an elevation of over six thousand 

 feet, a small Rodent, whose name I do not know, 

 came out from under the roots of a larch-tree, and 

 allowed us to take it up and put it down again more 

 than once. Nor did it show any signs of fear. If 

 this little animal is so indifferent to danger, how does 

 it escape being eaten by hawks and weasels ? Why is 

 it not quickly exterminated by its natural enemies ? I 

 imagined at first that this creature was ill, or for some 

 reason unable to take care of itself, but on another 

 occasion we found one of these same animals on a 

 mountain called the Tournairet at an elevation of over 

 seven thousand feet ; and this one was as familiar as 

 the other. Here is a problem for naturalists. That 

 tame mouse of Thoreau's was attracted and rewarded 

 by eatables: but this little Ligurian fellow had no 

 mercenary motives. He refused bread and all other 

 delicacies: indeed, he did not seem to care about 

 civilized food. 



Mouse trap. A propos of rodents, Gilbert White 

 cites from an old book a description of a mouse-trap, 

 which neither he nor any one else is able to under- 

 stand. It is, in fact, a conundrum without an answer. 

 Waterton also describes several ingenious contrivances. 

 The Riviera mouse-trap is both simple and effective. 

 I hope that no one, reading my account of it, will be 



