6 5 8 
[November, 
The “ Trading-Rat .” 
who was telling me, 4 provoked as I was, I could not help 
noticing how prettily the nest was made up of gnawings of 
an old blue army-overcoat, red flannel shirt, and many white 
rags, put together so nicely and made so soft within.’ This 
morning, going to the store-house for a lamp-chimney, I 
found an ordinary glass chimney packed close with straw, 
grains of rice, oats, wheat, a few beans, and chips. 
“ The mischief these rats can do in a single night is 
almost incredible. One, getting into a lady’s room, stripped 
her house-plants of every leaf and blossom, and hid himself 
behind the wardrobe, where he was found next day, with a 
most singular accumulation of goods, — among them many 
bits of paper, a quantity of raisins, a box of matches, some 
candle-ends, gnawed postage-stamps, and a lot of odds and 
ends. Nothing seems to come amiss, and they are particu- 
larly fascinated by anything that glitters, often carrying off 
knives, spoons, watches, and silver, and hiding them 
effectually. 
“ They are ‘ good providers,’ and in the fall build their 
nests, and fill them with stores of eatables, the result of 
persevering foraging expeditions for their families before 
winter sets in. Under a large cotton wood-tree on a side- 
hill, partly underneath a fallen trunk, a party of us found a 
mountain-rat’s nest. It was built up nearly 2 feet in height, 
the top or roof covering it sloped on all sides to shed rain or 
snow : tearing it to pieces, we found it was built closely of 
grass, moss, chips, bones, and many leaves of the caCtus 
(which grows plentifully among the rocks) ; how they could 
cut off and convey this thorny stuff, working it up with the 
other material, in the close covering, is hard to understand. 
Away down, running in almost under the log so well built 
around, out of the reach of any possible moisture or cold, a 
clever little bed of wool was found, made for the young rats. 
This wool, of which there was a quantity, must have been 
collected bit by bit from the weeds through which the sheep 
passed, and from their corrals. 
“ To reach this nest in the rat’s house there was quite a 
long, circuitous passage, entrance close to the ground, on 
the south side, — a little den or hole to crawl through, In a 
little heap outside, not yet carried in among their provisions, 
but lying close by, we found more than a quart of fine fresh- 
looking potatoes, brought from our own garden ; and it is an 
unsolved mystery how the potatoes were taken there, with 
not a scratch or mar upon them, or the skin bruised or 
broken. The garden was a hundred feet away, considerably 
lower down, and a stream of water, an irrigating ditcb, to 
