PHAI1UE DOG. 



ORDER RODENTIA. 



CHAPTEE I. 



INTRODUCTION THE SQUIRREL, MARMOT, ANOMALURE, HAPLODONT, AND 



BEAVER FAMILIES. 



Character of the Order A well-defined Group Teeth Evidence Kinds and Number of Teeth The Incisors : their Growth, 

 Renewal, and Composition The Molars The Gnawing Process Skeleton Brain Senses Body Insectivora 

 and Rodentia Food of Rodents Classification THE SIMPLE-TOOTHED RODENTS Characteristics THE 

 SQUIRREL-LIKE RODENTS SciURiD^E Distinctive Features THE COMMON SQUIRREL Form Distribution 

 Food Bad Qualities Habits THE GREY SQUIRREL THE Fox SQUIRREL Flying Squirrels Their Parachute 

 Membrane THE TAGUAN Appearance Habits Other Species THE POLATOUCHE THE ASSAPAN The Genus Xerus 

 THE GROUND SQUIRRELS THE COMMON CHIPMUNK THE MARMOTS Distinguishing Features THE SPERMOPHILES 

 THE GOPHER THE SISEL, OR SUSLIK THE BARKING SQUIRRELS THE PRAIRIE DOG Description Species 

 Habits Burrows Fellow-inmates in their " Villages "THE TRUE MARMOTS THE BOBAC THE ALPINE MARMOT 

 THE WOODCHUCK THE HOARY MARMOT, OR WHISTLER ANOMALURIDJ5 Tail Peculiarity Distinctive 

 Features HAPLODONTIDJE Description THE SEWELLEL CASTORID^E THE BEAVER Skeletal Peculiarities 

 - General Form Appe-i ranee Distribution The Beavers of the Old and New World Habits Wonderful Sagacity 

 The Building Instinct Their Method of Working The various Stages Their Lodges Their Dams Activity by 

 Night-Flesh Hunted The Castoreum. 



WHILE the last few chapters have been devoted to orders which contain the largest and most powerful 

 of terrestrial mammalia, we have now to treat of a group, all the members of which are of com- 

 paratively small size. "Mice, rats, and such small deer," to use Shakspere's phrase, make up a 

 great proportion of the order Rodentia. The biggest of them is only about the size of a small 

 Pig; and perhaps the common House Rat, or, at any rate, the common Squirrel, may be taken 

 as showing the average dimensions of a Rodent. But, although from this point of view they 



