192 MAMMALIAN DESCENT. [Lect. VIII. 



Rodentia (Gnawing Animals). 



The Eodents, or Gnawing Mammals, have evi- 

 dently, like the Bats, arisen from the Insectivorous 

 platform, but they have also undergone a large 

 amount of specialisation ; they are still very potent 

 in families, genera, and sjDecies. They are, therefore, 

 amongst the most notable of the "winners in life's 

 race," having been able to fit themselves to a great 

 variety of conditions, either hy skill or by cunning ; 

 by their great fecundity ; and also, in many cases, 

 by their small size, so that they have managed to 

 slip through the fingers of their foes. This tendency to 

 dwarfing has been combined with a readiness to pick 

 up any crumbs that may fall from nature's large table. 

 Their teeth are very uniform for so large and varied a 

 group ; only the Rabbits and Hares having in the adult 

 state more tha.n two incisors or cutting teeth, even in 

 the upper jaws. They have, apparently, made, as 

 Burns said of his Field-Mouse, only " a sma' request," 

 l)ut this has been, practically, very large. They are a 

 feeble folk, but they are in the habit of going forth in 

 bands and troops, and acting like locusts, whose destruc- 

 tiveness they imitate admirably; that which is peculiar 

 to them is their greediness as well as destructiveness, — 

 *' playing the Mouse in the absence of the Cat, to spoil and 

 havoc more than they can eat." Like other mean people 

 if you give them an inch, they take an ell. A good 



