Page:Once a Week Volume V.djvu/302

 . 7, 1861.] and eighteen grains. All the movements of this little creature are agile and graceful. When seated on their hind legs they are capable of extending the body to a considerable angle like the kangaroos.

A nest, containing a female and three young ones, was taken in a hay-field in the month of June. The young were apparently about a month old. They were all placed in a cage, where the young ones grew rapidly, and in a short time could feed themselves, although the mother continued to suckle them. They were the most playful, as well as diminutive of all quadrupeds, being in constant motion during their hours of exercise, climbing about the wires of their cage, and holding by their prehensile tails, frequently hanging by one foot and the tail. They sometimes fed during the middle of the day, but more generally in the evening, at which time they are most active between the hours of nine and eleven, and perhaps most part of the night. In their gambols the eye can scarcely follow them, such is the rapidity of their motions, for they dart like lightning, scarcely appearing to touch the ground. Their cage was six inches high from the bottom to the top wires, and it was a favourite exercise to leap from the bottom to the top, in the same manner as the leopards and tigers in confinement. This feat was done by all in succession, as if they were following their leader. When the height of the animal and the spring are taken into consideration, it may be considered enormous, being twelve times as high as itself. They are fond of canary seed, barley, bread or biscuit. They drink frequently, by lapping like a dog. In their state of freedom, the pearly dewdrops must be their beverage, as the fields where they were taken are dry, having no water of any kind.

The nest of this pretty little animal is made of grass, formed into a ball about the size of a cricket-ball, and is suspended on a plant about five inches from the ground, sometimes, as Mr. White informs us, on the head of a thistle. He also says that it is so compact and well placed, that it will roll across the table without being discomposed, though it contains eight little mice that are naked and blind. As the nest which he saw was perfectly full, Mr. White asks how could