ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE AKIN TO MAN’S
When viewed with unbiased attention, these little animals of the wilds are certain to charm the observer either by their beauty and grace or by their varied and interesting habits. No one can long study mammals, large or small, without observing many traits of intelligence so akin to his own that they awaken feelings of friendly fellowship.
The modes of life of small mammals are much more varied than those of the larger species. At times radical differences in habits may be noted among different individuals of the same species, as instanced by the wood-rats of Santa Margarita Island, some of which live in burrows dug by themselves in the ground and others in nests built of sticks in the tops of mangroves rising amid the waters of a lagoon.
An even more extraordinary variation is shown among the heavy-bodied meadow-mice of the genus Phenacomys, most of which live in underground burrows; but one member of the group in Oregon builds its nests in the tops of tall conifers, sometimes at an altitude of 80 feet, and rarely or never descends to the ground.