102 
A NATURALIST ON THE PROWL. 
And what did I do with him ? I let him off. Such 
is the power of a pretty face. Of course he came back 
again and brought a friend. I ejected them both, but 
they returned. Then my patience ran dry. I banished 
one from the premises and put the other into my travelling 
spirit jar. But the advantages of my hat as a residence 
had got noised abroad, and I had to take five mice from 
first to last out of that relic. By that time they had 
adapted it so well to their purposes that it was no longer 
of any use for mine, and I reflected that I might as well 
have left the first occupant in peace. Weakness is ever 
cruel, and the weakness called pity is as cruel as any other. 
There is another mouse about my premises which you 
would easily mistake for Vandeleura , except that its tail 
is only half as long : this is Mus platythrix , the Spiny 
Mouse. Its distinction lies not in its nails, but in its 
hair. If you take a lens and examine it, you will find 
that it is a bijou porcupine. Almost every other hair 
is a fine spine. For what purpose it is so strangely 
clothed I cannot tell. Those spines may serve to irritate 
the mucous membranes of snakes, and warn them not 
again to eat the Spiny Mouse. Or perhaps they have 
no use, for their owner has none, I am sure ; what mouse 
