ten thought to be the
same as the quiet respectable water-rat. For, as I say, the stupidity
and ignorance of people is really amazing! Why, the two animals are no
more alike than you and I are, I was going to say; certainly not nearly
so much alike, except in size, as yourself and the little Gotobeds down
below, there. No! these water friends of yours should never acknowledge
the common rat as a cousin; but they are not very distantly related to
a much more noble animal--to the _beaver_,[6] friend Brush, though
perhaps you have never heard of such a creature.

[5] The common brown rat, which has now been an inhabitant of
this island for about one hundred years, is often improperly
called the "Norway rat," as if it came originally from that
country; whereas, it was quite unknown there when it first
received that name. Pennant believes that it was brought over in
merchant-vessels from the East Indies.

It is even supposed, that the old English black rat, as it is
called, is not originally a native of this island, as no mention
is made of it in any author earlier than the middle of the
sixteenth century.

[6] The characters of the teeth, the form of the body, and the
habits of the water-rat, fully justify its removal from the genus
_mus_, to which the common rat belongs, and indicate a pretty
close affinity to the beaver. Linnaeus himself appears struck
with this, for though in his _Systema Naturae_ he has placed the
water-rat in the genus _mus_, in a subsequent work he has removed
it to that of _castor_.

Well, well, we must not expect too much from people who have never had
an opportunity of learning. I could tell you a good deal about this
relation of the water-rat, this clever fellow called the beaver, and
about the famous wooden houses he makes of the trunks and branches of
trees. But I declare I must fly home, and see how Mrs. Leatherwing is
getting on. Oh! stop a minute, though; I forgot one thing. Perhaps
_you_ don't believe that I can run on a level surface, or raise myself
from it, as you may never have seen me do it. Look here, then!

So saying, the funny little creature made what he called a _run_, along
the large branch upon which Brush was seated, and at the end of this
_run_ of two or three feet in length, he gave a sort of a little spring
into the air, and instantly spreading his beautiful wings, he sa