LEAVES 



FROM THE 



NOTE-BOOK OF A NATURALIST. 



CHAPTER I. 



ABEAVEE* arrived in this country in the wdnter of 

 1825, very young, being small and woolly, and with- 

 out the covering of long hair that marks the adult animal. 

 It was the sole survivor of five or six which were shipped 

 at the same time, and it was in a very pitiable condition, 

 lean, and with the coat all clogged with pitch and tar. 

 Good treatment quickly restored it to health; it grew 

 apace, plumped out, and the fur became clean and in 

 sfood condition. Kindness soon made it familiar. When 

 called by its name, ' Binny,' it generally answered with a 

 little low plaintive cry, and came to its owner. The 

 hearth-rug: was its favourite haunt in a winter eveninof, 

 and thereon it would lie stretched out at its length, some 

 "times on its back, sometimes on its side, and sometunes 

 on its belly, expanding its webbed toes to secure the full 

 action of a comfortable fire on them, but always near its 

 master. 



The building instinct showed itself early. Before it 

 had been a week in its new quarters, as soon as it was let 

 out of its cage, and materials were placed in its way, it 

 immediately went to work. Its strength, even before it 



05 



* Part of this narrative appeared, by the permission of the 

 author, in The Gardens and Menagerie of the Zoological Society 

 Delineated, 1830. A highly interesting and insti-uctive work. 



B 



