A TRIBE OF GNAWERS AND THEIR FOOD 87 



took a hand in causing any of these sanguinary 

 encounters; but when one is collecting live speci- 

 mens for sketching purposes, even though one 

 gives them all their freedom after they have served 

 as models, there are bound to be some unadvertised 

 and unscheduled scraps where the race problem 

 comes to the front, and the hereditary prejudices 

 and antipathies have an opportunity of venting 

 themselves. 



A little white-footed 'mouse which. I had in a 

 cage with a garter snake (but for which I pro- 

 vided a safe retreat in one corner, so fixed that 

 the snake could not enter it), became so enraged 

 at the presence of its enemy that it left its safe 

 retreat to attack the monster snake, for monster 

 it was in comparison with the size of the little 

 mouse; but I doubt if this would have happened 

 in the open. 



It was probably the maternal instinct which 

 prompted the little mother mouse to come out 

 and attack its great foe, but, whatever it was, out 

 she came and jumped right for the snake, much 

 to the latter's surprise. Her small teeth, although 

 capable of inflicting a painful bite on my fingers, 

 were not long enough to do any serious injury 

 to the garter snake, and before I could open the 

 cage to interfere the latter had bitten the mouse 

 severely on one of its hind feet. 



For the comfort of the tender-hearted reader, 

 I will say that I took the snake from the cage 

 and liberated it; also, that I kept the mother 



