MAMMALS AS NEST BUILDERS 133 



within the bole of a tree ; while the abode of another 

 member of the family, known as the mink, is either 

 concealed within the shelter of a hollow log or else 

 in the bank of a stream. 



One would hardly expect a kangaroo to indulge 

 in the habit of making a nest, but some of the smaller 

 species, termed rat-kangaroos, resort to that practice 

 and excavate hollows in the ground and form nests 

 therein which are composed of grasses. When 

 carrying the material used in the making of their 

 homes, the animals utilise their prehensile tails 

 as a grasping organ, and curl the extremities thereof 

 in a downwards direction around the grasses. 

 Even when living in a captive state, the writer 

 has known a pair of these creatures to make a nest 

 in their enclosure, and so carefully did they cover 

 themselves up when once inside that an observer 

 would merely imagine that he was gazing upon a 

 stray heap of litter. 



Other marsupials which make nests are the long- 

 snouted phalanger, a little animal no larger than 

 a house mouse in size, and a species of American 

 opossum known in scientific nomenclature as 

 Didelphrys crassicaudata, which, according to 

 Mr. Hudson, ' sometimes constructs globular nests 

 suspended from rushes.' 



No account of mammalian nest builders would 

 be complete without mentioning the mole and the 

 beaver, both of which display great ingenuity in 

 the planning and making of the homes wherein 

 their nests are situated. Although the underground 

 domicile of the former creature, commonly called 



