20 RAMBLES ABOUT HOME. 



worthy our attention. This would be true, if the most 

 interesting problems in biology could be solved only 

 by the study of the habits of the larger animals ; but 

 if we have not the cougar, we have the lynx; if not 

 the elk, we have the deer ; and if not the beaver, there 

 remains the musk-rat ; and it is to the study of the habits 

 of such smaller creatures as have withstood the encroach- 

 ment of man that our attention will be directed, and 

 not to the past, when a larger, fiercer, and more attractive 

 fauna dwelt within our borders. 



In studying the habits of the few mammals that re- 

 main in New Jersey, it would, indeed, be interesting to 

 determine to what extent their habits may have changed, 

 since their environment has been so greatly altered by 

 the destruction of forests, the drainage of swamps, and 

 the cultivation of so large a portion of their former do- 

 main. I have already mentioned these changes, among 

 others even more patent, as having aided in the extermi- 

 nation of most of our larger mammals ; and it remains 

 now to inquire how far the smaller ones that are left 

 have retained their old habits, and whether they have 

 acquired any that are new. As their altered surround- 

 ings must surely have increased the severity of that 

 struggle for existence that greets every creature born 

 into the world, it becomes an interesting inquiry whether 

 the same causes have likewise increased their cunning 

 and quickened their wits. When we come to consider 

 certain phases of bird-life, we will find that man's pres- 

 ence has changed some of their habits to a marked degree, 

 and the same might reasonably be expected in the case 

 of our mammals. I confess, however, that I have been 

 able to find but few indications of such changes, and the 

 accounts of the habits of the raccoon, musk-rat, and mink, 

 as detailed by Kalin, seem to be as applicable to these 



