94 HAUNTS AND HOBBIES 



to watch his further proceedings. A minute or two 

 passed, and then another small stream of earth issued 

 from the hole and commenced to trickle down the side 

 of the path, while behind the earth, and pushing it 

 forward, appeared the point of a little black nose. 



At short intervals the performance continued to be 

 repeated, and each time as the earth was pushed 

 forward the small nose was protruded further and 

 further. At length, as the result of an unusually 

 vigorous push, not only the entire nose, but also the 

 greater part of the head it belonged to, appeared dis- 

 played. I now perceived that the little excavator was 

 a garden rat, and that he belonged to that variety 

 of garden rat which is long and slender, and is also, 

 so far as a rat can be so, pretty both in form and 

 colour. 



This last push appeared to have disposed of all that 

 remained of the earth which the rat had collected, for, 

 though I waited for some time, no more earth issued. 

 I presumed that the rat had gone on to the end of the 

 burrow to dig away some more. As the morning was 

 advancing, I did not care to wait for his return. I 

 retired to the house, and there I endeavoured to solve 

 a problem that rather puzzled me. 



Rats dig with their fore feet, and so, of course, did 

 this rat ; but then he shovelled out the earth with his 

 nose. He must therefore have turned himself round in 

 his hole. The puzzle to me was how he managed to do 

 so, for rat-holes never appear larger than just sufficient 

 for the rat to pass through them. 



The proceedings of this rat also suggested another 



