68 A DESCRIPTION OF 
quite tamed by the sailors, and was called Bunney. When 
he arrived in England, he was made quite a pet of, and 
used to lie on the hearth-rug in his master's library. One 
day he found out the housemaid's closet, and his building 
propensities began immediately to display themselves. 
He seized a large sweeping brush, and dragged it along 
with his teeth to a room where he found the door open ; 
he afterwards laid hold of a warming-pan in the same 
manner ; and having laid the handles across, he filled up 
the walls of the angle made by the brushes with the wall, 
with hand-brushes, baskets, boots, books, towels, and 
anything he could lay hold of. As his walls grew high, 
he would often sit, propped up by his tail, (with which he 
supported himself admirably,) to look at what he had done ; 
and if the disposition of any of his building-materials did 
not satisfy him, he would pull part of his work down, and 
lay it again more evenly. It was astonishing how well he 
managed to arrange the incongruous materials he had 
chosen, and how cleverly he contrived to remove them, 
sometimes carrying them between his right fore paw and 
his chin, sometimes dragging them with his teeth, and 
sometimes pushing them along with his chin. When he 
had built his walls, he made himself a nest in the centre, 
and sat up in it, combing his hair with the nails of his 
hind feet, 
