though covered with scales like the beaver, is flat and thin, and nearly the length of the whole body. The powerful odour of musk prevents the flesh from being much eaten. The skin is highly valued on account of the fineness of the fur, and is used in the manufacture of hats. they may be easily tamed. They are then very playful and inoffensive, and never bite. When taken One of the largest of the rat kind (M. Typhlus, the blind rat) is an animal that perhaps is the only instance of a truly blind or eyeless quadruped. In the mole, the eyes are small and deeply seated, they are nevertheless perfect in their kind; but in the blind rat, what may be called the rudiments of eyes are not much larger than poppy-seeds, and covered with a real skin. It has a very large head, broader than the body, and is without tail. It is an inhabitant of southern Russia, each animal forming a long burrow under the turf. It feeds on bulbous roots, and, when irritated, the bite is extremely severe. To compensate for the want of sight, the senses of smell, touch, and hearing, are very acute. The economic mouse (Mus Economicus) is a native of Siberia and Kamtschatka; this species. takes its name from its very curious mode of living. The animals inhabit damp places, and form burrows with several chambers and entrances. In these they lay up stores of provisions collected with great pains in summer, from various plants which they bring out of their holes in hot sunny weather, that they may more effectually dry and preserve them. In certain years they make considerable migrations out of Kamtschatka; assembling in the spring, and going off in incredible multitudes. They proceed in a direct course, and suffer nothing to impede their way, not even rivers and the arms of the sea. Many of them, in their passage across the water, fall a prey to the fish, but on land they are safe, for the natives of the country have a superstitious veneration for them, and are so far from hurting, that if they find any of them lying in the road exhausted through fatigue and hunger, they afford them every assistance in their power. When these animals return from their migration, expresses are sent to all quarters of the country with the joyful tidings, because their arrival is considered as a sure sign, that a successful chase and fishery may be expected. The natives are said to lament their departure, which is usually succeeded by tempestuous and rainy weather, and when they rob them of their vegetable stores they take care to leave them something to subsist on. In Russia a small kind of mouse (M. Agranus, called by the natives corn mouse) migrates in such multitudes as to destroy the whole expectations of the farmer. In 1763 and 1764 vast swarms of these mice made great ravages in the rich country about Casara and Arsk. They came in such numbers as to fill the very houses; and through hunger became so bold as to rob the tables of bread, before the faces of those who had sat down to eat it. At the approach of winter they all disappeared. The short-tailed field-mouse of our own country, insignificant as it is in appearance, commits great depredations in the corn-field and barns of the farmer, as well as in the forests and plantations. In the year 1814, the whole both of Dean and New Forests were so completely infested with them, that they destroyed whole acres of ground which had been sown with acorns and other seeds, and killed the young oaks, and chestnut and holly-trees, by gnawing the roots. The evil at length became so serious, that cats were turned out, and the bushes, fern, and rough grass cleared away to expose the mice to beasts and birds of prey; poisons, and seven or eight different kind of traps were set for them, but the most effectual mode of destroying them was found to be that of digging pits hollowed out in the shape of a jar, with a close mouth; into these, if they fell, there was no means of getting out, and upwards of 30,000 were taken in Dean Forest in this manner. Mr. Bell says, "that it may be considered as one of the most destructive of all the minor pests of the corn-field, the nursery-ground, and the kitchen-garden. Multiplying in hosts, and each one laying up a winter store in its subterraneous retreat, the devastations committed by it are almost incalculable. It is, however, a gentle timid little creature, easily tamed and rendered perfectly familiar. I have seen several of them running out upon the breakfast-table of my late most valued friend Dr. Leach, of whose kind and affectionate disposition they appeared to have an almost instinctive perception, as they would feed from his hand, and allow him to handle and play with them as freely as the dormouse." This creature is very prolific, often producing from ten to fifteen young ones in the course of the year. Mr. White, in the letter containing anecdotes of the maternal affections of animals, includes the field-mouse. "One day when his workmen were pulling off the lining of a hot-bed, in order to add some fresh litter, out leaped an animal that made a most grotesque figure, nor was it without great difficulty that it could be taken, when it proved to be a large field-mouse with three or four young ones clinging to her teats by their mouths and feet. It was amazing that the rapid and desultory motions of the mother should not oblige her litter to quit their hold, especially when |