CHAPTER IV 



THE RODENTS OR " GNAWING'' ANIMALS 



THE peculiarities of the flesh-eating, or carnivorous cat and dog, 

 and their kind, will be the more readily appreciated if contrasted 

 with, say, the herbivorous animals on which they feed when in a 

 wild state. 



The rabbit and the mouse well serve this purpose. Creatures 

 of relatively low intelligence, they have, from the persecution 

 to which they are constantly subjected from carnivorous animals 

 of all kinds, both winged and four-footed, adopted a more or 

 less nocturnal habit, passing the day in burrows or in holes 

 of some kind. 



Rabbits and most kinds of mice shun the neighbourhood 

 of man. But the " common " mouse has now become almost 

 parasitic on man, being rarely found away from barns or the 

 actual dwellings of his arch enemy ! But while the mouse is 

 everywhere detested, the rabbit is more or less carefully pre- 

 served, being valued as food; so much so, indeed, that by 

 careful breeding man has succeeded in raising up several well- 

 marked domesticated races of rabbits, which differ in several 

 striking particulars from the wild parent stock, the great " lop- 

 eared " rabbit and the white angoras and Himalayan rabbits 

 being examples of this kind. 



The rabbit and the mouse are types of that great group known 

 as the Rodents, or gnawing animals, which may be at once dis- 

 tinguished by the peculiar character of the teeth. 



In the first place, the " incisor " or " cutting " teeth, which 

 are borne by the front of the jaws, are peculiar in that they are 

 continuously growing at their bases, and as continually wearing 

 away along their cutting edges. 



This wearing away, it should be remarked, takes place in 

 such a manner that the cutting edges of the teeth are kept sharp 



