i\ 



The Kangaroo Rat 



This was the home of my nightly visitor, 

 planned and carried out with wisdom for all the 

 straits of his daily life and near future. 



Ill 



Its owner in the cage I now watched with 

 double interest. He was the embodiment of 

 restless energy, palpitating with life from the 

 tip of his translucent nose and ears to the end 

 of his vibrant tail. He could cross the box at 

 a single bound, and I now saw the purpose of 

 his huge tail. In the extraordinary long flying 

 leaps that Perodipus makes, the tuft on the end 

 does for him what the feathers do for an arrow. 

 It keeps him straight in the air on his tra- 

 jectory. But it does more, for it enables him 

 slightly to change his course if he finds it wiser 

 after he has leaped. And the tail itself has 

 other uses. The Perodipus has no pocket in 

 his striped trousers to carry home his winter sup- 

 plies, but he has capacious pockets, one in each 

 cheek, which he can fill till they bulge out 

 wider than himself — so wide that he must turn 

 his head sidewise to enter his own front gate. 



250 



