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PIKA, LITTLE CHIEF HARE 



(Lagomys prince ps) 



"the unbroken incisor meeting with no 

 opposition, keeps right along in the same 

 line of growth in which it started until 

 curving inward it pierces the flesh, or 

 re-enters the skull, or so interferes with 

 the action of the jaws that the animal 

 can no longer use them." 



"Starves to death," I suggested. 



"Results in a case of lockjaw which 

 no one but a competent dentist could 

 treat successfully," said the Doctor, 

 "and a valuable specimen skull for a col- 

 lection. I have one at home in which 

 the left upper incisor has formed al- 

 most a complete circle, perforating 

 the roof of the mouth just before the 

 back teeth and presents the problem of 

 how the animal could have lived long 

 enough to perfect such a beautiful ex- 

 ample of incisorial incurvation. 



"In the tendency of the front teeth to 

 become tusks, in the absence of canine 

 teeth, which no rodent possesses, as well 

 as in the structure and growth of the 

 back teeth the dentition of a muskrat, 



or of a field mouse for that matter, is 

 very much the same as an elephant's or 

 r„ mammoth's." 



"Extremes meet in mice and mam- 

 moths," I murmured. 



"Yes," assented the Doctor, "and do 

 you know, it is rather curious, that old 

 idea of the Chinese and Siberians that 

 the mammoth was nothing else than a 

 sort of gigantic burrowing animal of 

 the mouse kind !" 



Pack Rats. 



"Doc," said I, "I have a proposition 

 to make. We are going to the Cas- 

 cade Range, west of us, for big game, 

 as soon as Billy McGovern and Luke 

 Lopez, the guide, show up here ; let's 

 devote our time to small game until 

 we break camp. You seem to have 

 made something of a specialty of ro- 

 dents. I move that we hunt rodents 

 while we are waiting for the rest of the 

 party." 



"There are tribes of little four-footed 

 mountaineers here that I would like to 



424 



