706 RODENTIA. 



tail, which propped him up admirably ; and he would often, after laying 

 on one of his building materials, sit up over against it, appearing to con- 

 sider his work, or, as the country-people say, "judge it." After this 

 pause he would sometimes change the position of the material "judged," 

 and sometimes he would leave it in its place. 



After he had piled up his materials in one part of the room (for he 

 generally chose the same place), he proceeded to wall up the space be- 

 tween the feet of a chest of drawers which stood at a little distance from 

 it, high enough on its legs to make the bottom a roof for him ; using for 

 this purpose dried turf and sticks, which he laid very even, and filling up 

 the interstices with bits of coal, hay, cloth, or anything he could pick up. 

 This last place he seemed to appropriate for his dwelling ; the former 

 work seemed to be intended for a dam. When he had walled up the 

 space between the feet of the chest of drawers, he proceeded to carry in 

 sticks, clothes, hay, cotton-wool, etc., and to make a nest. When he had 

 done this to his satisfaction, he would sit up under the drawers and comb 

 himself with the nails of his hind feet. 



Binny generally carried small and light articles between his right 

 fore-leg and his chin, walking on the other three legs ; and huge masses, 

 which he could not grasp readily with his teeth, he pushed forward, 

 leaning against them with his right fore-paw and his chin. He never 

 carried anything on his tail, which he liked to dip in water, but he was 

 not fond of plunging in the whole of his body. If his tail was kept 

 moist, he never cared to drink ; but if it was kept dry it became hot, and 

 the animal appeared distressed, and would drink a great deal. 



Binny must have been captured too young to have seen any of the 

 building operations of his parents, or their co-mates ; but his instinct im- 

 pelled him to go to work under the most unfavorable circumstances, and 

 he busied himself as earnestly in constructing a dam, in a room up three 

 pair of stairs in London, as if he had been laying his foundation in a 

 stream or lake in Upper Canada. 



