82 CONVERSATIONS ON 



a mischievous animal, and does harm to the 

 clover-fields ; but it is in making his house 

 that he uses his spade." 



" Then he digs his house in the ground, 

 Uncle Philip ?" 



" Yes ; he burrows, or digs his nest in 

 banks of earth, or on the sides of hills ; and 

 he has sense enough to make the passage to 

 the inside upwards, instead of downwards, so 

 that water cannot run in. In digging soft 

 earth he uses his fore-paws to loosen the dirt, 

 for his fore-legs are very strong ; and if the 

 ground is hard he will use his teeth too. As 



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he gets farther in, he throws the dirt with his 

 fore-paws under his belly, and when he has a 

 heap gathered, he balances himself on his 

 fore-feet, and begins to throw it out with his 

 spades." 



" What are his spades, Uncle Philip ?" 

 " His hinder feet, boys, which are very 

 broad, and just fit to take up the dirt as a 

 spade does, and to throw it from him : there 

 is a skin which grows between the toes of his 

 hinder feet, so that he can spread them out 

 when he chooses, like a duck's foot." 



" But, Uncle Philip, perhaps they are made 

 so for the sake of swimming ; the duck's are." 



