ching the contents--only trying to
add to their small amount of knowledge of the outside world. Their food
consisted of bran, oats, pea-nuts, wheat, fresh dandelion and
clover-leaves, and on these they lived in perfect health and beauty.

As the colony increased, it was needful to make several homes for the
gerbilles, and the original pair happened to be, for a time, in a cage
upstairs on a landing. One of these found its way out of the cage, down
the stairs, across the hall, and was discovered next morning in a room
where the younger members of the family were kept. This would go to
prove a keen scent, which, I suppose, guided the little animal to find
its friends, and also confirms what travellers have written about
gerbilles living in large colonies and always keeping together.

One evening I had to read some natural history papers at a Band of Mercy
meeting in a neighbouring village, where the clergyman's wife took great
interest in promoting kindness to animals, and as I proposed speaking
about the gerbilles, I thought I would take some of them with me to show
the children. Accordingly a mother and four little ones, were put into a
cage with some food and bedding for their comfort whilst being
exhibited. I was concerned to see the extreme terror they seemed to feel
at the unusual motion of the carriage, and in a few minutes one became
convulsed and literally died of fright. I held the cage in my lap, and
talked to the others to reassure them, fearing more casualties, but
after a while they settled down, and we reached the schoolroom in due
time. I was scarcely prepared for the tremendous sensation the gerbilles
created. Remarks in broad Hertfordshire greeted their appearance. "Whoy,
here's a lot of moise." "Noa, they ain't; they's rats!" "Will they
boite?" and then such a cluster of children came round me they had to be
called to order, and the cage was carried round that all might see the
little foreigners, and through all the after-proceedings many pairs of
eyes remained fixed upon the cage and its inmates. I fancy that evening
will long be remembered by the children.

The great difficulty that attends the keeping of these little animals is
their rapid rate of increase. It is true they can all be kept together,
for, as I have said, though there are squabbles they do not result in
any personal injury, and thus my colony was allowed to go on till there
was no counting the number of generations that existed. I very