WINTER NEST OF THE MUS CANADENSIS. ] 19 



Him who called them into being. He has endowed 

 them with a kind of prescience, and when yellow 

 autumnal leaves, hung out like signals on every 

 tree, announce the approach of winter, they hasten 

 beneath the earth, and pass whole months in a 

 state of complete repose. Each mouse digs to the 

 depth of about six or eight inches into the soil, and 

 forms a little globular cell, rather larger than him- 

 self, for a storehouse of fine grass. Having thrust 

 in a sufficient quantity to form a comfortable bed, 

 he coils himself into a ball, and in this state he may 

 be rolled across a floor without injury. Thus com- 

 fortably housed, the little jumping mouse sleeps 

 securely through the heaviest storms, unmoved by 

 the howling of the wind, or the pitiless driving of 

 the rain; he requires neither food nor fuel, he rests 

 securely till the winter is past and gone. 



Another covered way had attracted the notice of 

 our naturalist; it was excavated by the smallest of 

 all quadrupeds, the minute shrew, which, even when 

 full grown, rarely exceeds thirty-six grains. He 

 had seen a living specimen, and once traced a burrow 

 nearly round a large barn; opening it all the way, 

 and even creeping beneath the floor till he dis- 

 covered its termination under a foundation stone, 

 but the stone could not be moved by a single arm. 

 Most probably a household of mice were safely 

 nested there, and we may conjecture that they 

 rejoiced not a little in the security of their habi- 

 tation. 



The Canadian Porcupine (Hyslrix dorsata) is not 

 invested with such long and large quills as the 



