The Republican journal., 1873-12-11
Anecdotes Of Rats.

Many instances have been recorded OF
the display of intelligencc by rats, to which
we beg leave to add the following A far
mer's wife in the west remarked that the
cream on the surface of the milk in her
dairy was often interfercd with At first
she suspected that some of her children had
taken the understandable liberty by dip
ping pieces of bread in it, but she could
find nothing to confirm her suspicious;
and by AMI by She noticed strange little
streahs OF cream on the edge of the milk
basins, as il a string had been dipped in
and drawn out, SO as to leave a mark At
last sic discovered the secret The cream
was stolen by rats, which got upon the
edges of the earthenware basins contain
ing the milk, and not being able to reach
down to it, Il depth of several inches, nor
could never have climbed up the smooth
surface again, dipped in the tips Of their
long tails, drew them up loaded with the
rich cream, and licked them. An arrange
ment of the basins. such that the rats could
not get upon the edges of them, put an end
to all further depredations Of this kind
There was surely something more than in
stinct in this case in the procedure of the
rats.
We have something still to tell regarding
the ingenuity of rats. A family in the coun-
try had fancy for rearing ducks, but
could not well do so on account of rats,
which Systematically got hold Of and car
ried away the young ducklings, even from
close to their mother With a view to cir
c,mvent the rats, the maternal duck and
| her young were housed for the night under
Il coop, which admitted Of no opening for
! the turtive intruders The rats We're not
to be 50 easily cheated of their prey. On
discovering that mother-duck and her fam
lily were closely shrouded from intrusion,
they devised a pretty plan of engineering
which was eminently successful. In the
course Of a single night they excavated q
tunnel. going below the outer edge of the
coop to its interior, and thus very neatly
without producing any alarm, stole every
duckling from under the guardianship O.
| the mother.
Two rats belonging to the same colony
| performed feat quite as ingenious.
trap which was baited for their capture
was habitually plundered without single
, rat They had evidently invented some
plan for safely stealing away the bait, and
what the plan was could only be learned
| by setting watch on lhe trap. we Snal
explain how the theft was effected. The
trap was of the kind which is sometimes
employed for catching mice. 1t was DO,
with sliding door. which was sustained
by mechanism connected with the bait
On the bait being nibbled at. the door de
cends and makes the mouse a prisoner
The two rats saw through the device. ard
resorted to the following very simple bu
etfectual method to take away the bait
which was 4 piece Of toasted cheese, an(
yet escape Imprisonment. One Of them
placed itself under the door so that it
might fall on its back, while the othe
crept in and successfully carried off the
morsal of cheese. The first raj then drew
itself from under the door, and joined it
companion. This demonstration of rat i'll
telligence, like the preceding incident
| OF recent occurrence.