ORDER RODENTIA. 129 



Decumamus), which comes to us from the southern regions 

 of Asia, and whose instinct has established it more com- 

 pletely among us than we could have ever done by our 

 intelligence. Vain efforts, indeed, are daily made to natu- 

 ralize in our climates species that might be useful, and 

 which seem to require much less for that purpose than this 

 animal, whose wants are numerous. Notwithstanding this, 

 it has been introduced and multiplied among us, in spite of 

 every natural difficulty with which it had to encounter, and 

 every effort on our part to expel it. Its multiplication at 

 present is so great that it is impossible effectually to oppose 

 its encroachments and ravages. It finds sustenance and 

 shelter to such an extent in the habitations of man, that 

 he may be considered more as its protector than its enemy. 



The Surmulots have found in the burrows which they 

 have dug beneath our roofs that degree of temperature 

 necessary to their preservation. In our cultivated fields, 

 in our granaries, in fact, in all the provision which the 

 foresight of man has collected, they have found an aliment 

 suitable to their life, and favourable to their reproduction. 

 Under other circumstances they must have perished here from 

 the effect of our winters, as they have neither the faculty 

 of lethargizing from the cold, nor the instinct of hoarding 

 up provision. They have profited by the fear with which 

 we have inspired their natural adversaries ; and their own 

 natural distrust has preserved them against our attacks and 

 artifices. 



The Surmulot is larger than the Rat. They are some- 

 times found above eight or nine inches in length. The tail 

 is about one-eighth of the body. This animal is less heavy 

 and clumsy than the Marmot or the Beaver, and less light 

 than the Dormouse or Squirrel. Its motions are prompt 

 and lively, and it climbs and swims with agility. It lives 

 underground, as we have said, in deep dens which it digs 

 with a most astonishing facility. Its perseverance in labour 



