46 DENIZENS OF THE DESERT 



and nibble around the edges until it was small 

 enough. Or, again, I have seen him clip one 

 right in two and then take each half down sepa- 

 rately in the ordinary way by carrying them 

 in his mouth. But he had one trick of get- 

 ting parings down the hole that required in its 

 execution nothing less than the nicest cunning 

 and real acts of judgment and invention — in 

 other words, mental processes of an order ac- 

 credited to human beings. 



One early, rainy morning I was lying on my 

 cot with my face turned to one side watching 

 my industrious pet, when I saw him bring up to 

 the hole an extra large orange peel. This he 

 tried to put through. It would not go down, in 

 spite of his repeated attempts. Billy stopped 

 and pondered. A sudden thought came to him. 

 He dropped his peel beside the hole, went down 

 the hole himself, pushed his head up through it, 

 seized the orange peel, and pulled it through. 

 That was invention, the product of reason, 

 imagination, and judgment — and Billy a wood 

 rat too. 



I have seen him do more. I have watched him 

 carry a number of edibles of large size — bread 



