OF HARTING. 251 



often met his game at the back and brought it down. 

 If, however, he failed to do this, and he very rarely 

 did, Rover would then take up the hunt and, unless 

 the foliage was very dense, would keep his eye upon 

 the squirrel, where the branches were upwards of 

 seventy feet from the ground, and follow him from 

 tree to tree for many hundred yards, giving tongue all 

 the while, until at last poor " Scug" was brought down 

 by a shot. In extenuation of this tragic denouement, 

 we ought perhaps to add that the squirrel makes such 

 sad havoc among the tender shoots of the chestnut and 

 other trees in the spring, and takes so much more 

 than his fair share of wall fruit in the autumn, that the 

 owner of plantations and gardens, who strongly objects 

 to these proceedings, necessarily has recourse to severe 

 measures for checking them. 



Rats, mice, hares, rabbits and squirrels, are known 

 in works on Natural History as rodents or gnawing 

 animals, from their four long chisel-edged incisors, two 

 in each jaw. In the economy of the animals of this 

 order, these instruments are made to perform such 

 severe work, that if there were no provision for keep- 

 ing up their efficiency, friction would soon blunt their 

 sharp edges and render them comparatively useless. 

 This contingency is effectually guarded against in two 

 ways ; in the first place, the outer or front surface of 

 each tooth is considerably harder than any other 

 portion, so that the inner side is the first to be worn 

 away and, as a natural consequence, the front plate 

 of enamel always forms the cutting edge, the back 

 portion being bevelled off by the opposing tooth. In 

 the next place the teeth themselves are constantly 

 growing, and this last fact sometimes leads to a very 

 curious result. If by any accident the incisors are 

 prevented from coming properly into contact with 

 each other, so as to keep up an amount of friction 

 proportionate to their rate of growth, they are 

 gradually pushed forward till they protrude from the 



