A Wave of Life. 61 



I kept an armadillo at this time, and good cheer 

 and the sedentary life he led in captivity made him 

 excessively fat ; but the mousing exploits of even 

 this individual were most interesting. Occasionally 

 I took him into the fields to give him a taste of 

 liberty, though at such times I always took the 

 precaution to keep hold of a cord fastened to one of 

 his hind legs ; for as often as he came to a kennel 

 of one of his wild fellows, he would attempt to 

 escape into it. He invariably travelled with an 

 ungainly trotting gait, carrying his nose, beagle- 

 like, close to the ground. His sense of smell was 

 exceedingly acute, and when near his prey he 

 became agitated, and quickened his motions, pausing 

 frequently to sniff the earth, till, discovering the 

 exact spot where the mouse lurked, he would stop 

 and creep cautiously to it ; then, after slowly raising 

 himself to a sitting posture, spring suddenly for- 

 wards, throwing his body like a trap over the mouse, 

 or nest of mice, concealed beneath the grass. 



A curious instance of intelligence in a cat was 

 brought to my notice at this time by one of my 

 neighbours, a native. His children had made the 

 discovery that some excitement and fun was to be 

 had by placing a long hollow stalk of the giant 

 thistle with a mouse in it — and every hollow stalk 

 at this time had one for a tenant — before a cat, and 

 then watching her movements. Smelling her prey, 

 she would spring at one end of the stalk — the end to- 

 wards which the mouse would be moving at the 

 same time, but would catch nothing, for the mouse, 

 instead of running out, would turn back to run to 

 the other end; whereupon the cat, all excitement, 



