The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-08-18
The intelligence of Insects and Fishes.

Ernest Mensalt, new champion for the Iu-
telligence of Animals, has revived the discus
sion in book full of facts and inferences
which, if not all new, are to the point. We
take an example or two of what the smallest
and dullest of them--feas and fsh-can dO:-
There were industrious leas before our time.
Baron Walckenaer (who died in 1852, saw
with his own eyes, for siXpence, in the Place
de la Bourse, Paris, four learned tieas perform
the manual exercise, standing upright on
their hind legs, with splinter Of wood to
serve for pike. Two other feas dragged
golden carriage, with a third llea holding
whip on the box for coachman. Another pair
dragged cannon. The flea horses were har-
messed by golden chain fastened to their
hind legs, which was never taken off. They
had lived i'll this way two years and half,
without any mortality among them, when
Walckenaer saw them. They took their meals
on their keepers arm. Their feats We're per-
formed ON a plate of polished glass. When
they were sulky and refused to work. the man,
instead of whipping them, held bit of lighted
charcoal over their backs, which very soon
brought them to their senses.
But of what use is cleverness without
heart The flea has strong maternal alice
tions. She lays her eggs in the orannies of
floors, in the bedding of animals, and on
babies night-clothes. When the helpless
transparent larvae appear, the mother Hea
charging into their mouths the contents OF
her stomach. Grudge her not therefore, one
small drop of blood; for you it is nothing but a
flea-lite; for her it is the life Of her beloved
offspring.
While pleading, however, for the flea, we
cannot do as much for the bug, though he Is
gifted with fuller developed intelligence. An
inquisitive gentleman, wishing to know how
the bug became aware of human presence,
tried the following eXperiment:-He got into a
bed suspended from the ceiling without any
tester, in the middle of an unfurnished room
He then placed on the floor bug, which
guided, probably, by smell, pondered the
means OF reaching the bed. After deep re,
Election. it climbed up the wall, travelled
straight across the ceiling to the spot imme,
diateiy over the bed, and then dropped plump
on the Observers nose. Was this, or was il
not, an act of intelligence
The Fish belongs to the great Flathead "a
mily. The same sort of platltude which you
see in his person doubtless extends to the
whole of his character. You have met Aln
somewhere in human shape, one of those pale
faced, wishy-washy gentlemen, whose pas
sions have eXtinguished all heart and feeling
You often find them in diplomatic regions
ana can't tell whether they are fish or flesh
But il their mental powers are less developed
their term of existence is more extended
They gain in longevity what they lose il
warmth of temperament.
Nevertheless, the skill with which tn
stickleback constructs his nest is now matte
of natural history. Other fishes display q
address which we acquire only by long an
constant practice. One fellow with muzz
prolonged into a narrow tube (Which he use
as a popgun prowls about the banks of I'll
tidal rivers. On spying fly on the watt
weeds, he slyly swims up till he gets With
FIVE or six feet of it. He then shoots 1t VII
water from his probOscis, never failing to brlI
down his game. A Governor OF the hospit
at Batavia, doubling the fact, though attestt
by credible witnesses, procured some OF the
fish to watch their pranks. He stuck fly on
pin at the end of stick, and placed it
as to attract their notice. To his gre
delight, they shot it with their water-gun