S22 Aberration from Animal Instinct. 



intruded its company in a most unceremonious manner. After 

 some difficulty, the little stranger was secured, and con- 

 veyed to an adjoining grove, and was liberated, to seek a more 

 suitable home. Not contented with the simple use of the 

 best apartment of the house as an elegant and secure retreat 

 from the winter storms, it had also conveyed, with incredible 

 pains, a considerable quantity of nuts and acorns, whose 

 shells lay in a very ungenteel manner on the carpet. These 

 remnants of a luxurious banquet from nature's bounty, had 

 before attracted the attention of the household, and being- 

 quite untidy affairs, were sorely puzzled to discover how they 

 came. The little grandchildren were under blame, for chil- 

 dren are thoughtless and mischievous, and grandmothers, as 

 well as nature, indulgent in their gifts. The room, however, 

 was again closed, after a temporary use, and the incidents 

 forgotten. 



But the unceremonious visitant was not to be frustrated 

 in its design of casting itself on the protection of the human 

 species. It was again subsequently discovered in the iden- 

 tical room, by some circumstance which attracted attention, 

 and its hiding place, for such it had, diligently sought. Ev- 

 ery crack, crevice, nook, corner, closet, was literally ransack- 

 ed without success. At last a table-drawer was opened, and 

 there lay, gentle reader, a most beautiful object, you can 

 imagine, — a perfect and carious nest of singular materials 

 and wondrous fabric, and within, several young in secure 

 repose. It was the nursery of one of the most graceful ob- 

 jects in the animal world, whose agile motions and silky 

 coat has no doubt often attracted your notice and admira- 

 tion when flitting from tree to tree in its native woods. It 

 was the little domicil of a flying squirrel ; (" Pteromys Volu- 

 cella." Desm. etGodman, Jim. ZooL, Vol. ii., p. 146, andcor- 

 resp. pi., fig. 1 .) Its nest was entirely composed of the shreds 

 of the hearth rug, whose edges were gnawed, and most inno- 

 cently appropriated to that end. Neither nature nor neces- 

 sity know any law, nor recognise any such artificial distinc- 

 tions as " trespass on property;" and the kind and provident 

 mother of a helpless family might reason on the principle 

 of " Lex talionis," that whatever was once unlawfully taken 

 from another, could with equal propriety be taken again. 

 But whether such were the cogitations of our little friend, 

 which had insinuated itself into our notice, I know not, and 

 leave the matter to be settled by wiser and older heads, — by 

 metaphysicians and others who have to do with theory rather 

 than facts. Be that as it may, it had shown no little dis- 

 crimination in matters of combined elegance and comfort. 

 Behind the drawer and between its back part and the leaf of 

 the table, was a small narrow aperture, and through this 



