The mole’s habitation is a singular affair. It consists of a large circular room, with several galleries and passages. He makes all this in this way. He first heaps a round hill or mound, pressing the earth to make it very solid and firm; he then digs out his round room, where he lives, and the passages. You can understand how he arranges these by the figure. You can see that there are two circular galleries, one above the other, and that these are connected together by five passages. The circular room is connected with the upper gallery by three passages. It also, you see, has a deep passage out from it at the bottom, which opens into a passage that goes out from the lower gallery; this passage, and another like it on the other side, lead out into the open air. I suppose that the use of all these winding passages is to enable the mole to keep out of the way of those who want to catch it.
How the woodchuck digs.
The marmot, or woodchuck, as he is commonly called, is a great digger. He digs his hole where he lives in this way. He loosens the dirt with his fore paws, using his teeth also when the earth is very hard, or where any roots happen to be in the way. He pushes back the dirt as he loosens it. When he gets a considerable heap, what do you think that he does with it? He shovels it out with his hinder feet, for they are so shaped that he can use them as shovels. They have a strong skin between the toes, so that when the toes are spread out the feet answer very well to shovel dirt with.
How beavers build their cabins.
Beavers are very singular animals. They do not live alone, but many of them live together. They live in a sort of cabin, which they build with branches of trees and mud, the mud answering for mortar. In gathering the branches they often gnaw them off with their sharp and powerful teeth. They are great diggers. They dig up the earth with their paws to use in building their cabin. It is said that they use their flat tails somewhat as masons do their trowels, spatting and smoothing the coating of mud as they put it on. The tail, which you see is very stout, answers another purpose. As the beaver builds the wall of the cabin, when it gets rather high he props himself up on his tail as he works.
The arrangement of the cabins and dams of beavers.
The beavers build their cabin close to a stream of water, and their entrance to it is below, so that they have to go down under water to get to it; and a dam is built to keep the water over this entrance of the proper height. If it were not for this, the door to the cabin might get closed up with ice if the water should get low in the stream during the winter. This dam the beavers build of branches of trees, and mud, and stones. The stones are used to make the branches stay down. In the cabin there are two rooms: in the upper one they live, and in the lower one they stow their food. This is the arrangement of these animals for the winter. In the summer they do not live together in companies, but each one makes a burrow for itself. Every autumn they come together, and unite in building their dams and cabins.
Questions.—Why does man make tools? Why do not other animals make them? Do they have tools? How is the swimming of a fish like sculling? What does the fish do with his fins? What is said about the bill of the woodpecker? What does he drill for? Tell about his tongue. What is said about the bones of his head? What about his claws? What is said about the digging of the elephant—of the hen—of the pig? How does the mole dig? What is said about his fore paws? Describe the arrangement of the mole’s habitation. How does the woodchuck dig? How does he shovel away the dirt that he digs? Tell about the beavers. In what two ways do they use their tails? What is the arrangement of the cabin? What is the dam for?