Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1874-04-15
Ingen ity Of Animals.

A small menageria eXhibite ut a f,i
in Il village in Ayrshire. Scotland. wa
much crowded with visi ors. Among the
1nimals was a brown bear. MT -htt up in
1 cage, but fastened by u chain in I; corn, +
Of an area. which WAS fence | off by sligh
railing. that people m GIT not 90 too near
him. \ woman who was there with a
bI>ket, sell ng gingerbread however, wes'
: near tha Br lin. puttInr forth his h"g
paw, clutched thu bl-ket, which he quickly
.r-w from her hand, emptying most of it
.-ontents upon the ground within the space
allO tel to himself. She began to make
some attempt to recover her gingerbread: :
hut the animal. Offer ng no violent resist
,nce, quietly lay down upon it. and then
proc"e.lei 10 draw it forth. pee By piece
and to eat it ut his leis ne. Something of
reason was surely displayed by that bear
in adopting this method to st, ure posses
sion of the gingerbread.
Cats are quite clever in the art of open
nc iatchcs. when ii suits their purpnsc
\ family in one of the northern outskirts
ot Lpuuon We're Il cool deal annoyed with
lie frequent robbery of their lar,er-a
small out-honse behind their dwelling
LrTs of lambs and otner articles We're de-
voured or carried of, and no one conld
eli how. The theft WAS Il mystery. One
of the servants determined To discover the
delinquent. She accordingly watched. and
one night found that the thieves were Il
let of cats belonging to the neighborhood.
The harder had a latch which had 10 be
pressed down in opening the door. No
at could properly press ii down by spring
ing from the ground. There WAS how
ever, an adjoining wall, from which cats
might leap and risk the depression of the
latch as they sUcce> sivtN ,asSed. This
W.T. what they did; they leapc,i from the
wall one after the o;her. each trying TO
,lcIre>s th, Ia. ch aS il passed. until one
cat more fortunate than the others, made
the neeifill depression with is paw. The
door Immediately WAS opened. and a leg
If mutton. wh,h had been the object of
siege WAS secured and eaten, all but the
bones
\ farmers wife in the west of Scotland
remarked that the cream on the smf face of
the milk in her dairy was often interfered
with. At first >he suspected that some OF
hrr children la TAX, IL the unN -;irrantable
iiher.y of dipping pieces of bread in II. but
she could find nothing to confirm this Sis
picion: and by and by she noticed strange
little streiks of cream on the edges of the
milk-hasins, as if Il string had been dipped
in and drawn out. 50 a to leave a mark
At last she disco cred the secret. The
-ream WAS stolen by rats. which got upon
he edges of the elrthenware basins con-
tanning the milk, and not being able to
reach down 10 it-a depth of several
. inches-nor daring TO attempt to 90 down,
: they could not have climbed mp the
smooth surface again. dippe, in the tips of
heir long tails, drew them up loaded with
he ri, h cream. and licked them. An ar
rangtment of The basins. SO that til, rats
could not GET upon the edges of them, put
an end To all further depredations of this
kind
A family in a country house in Hert-
iordshie had a fancy for rearing ducks,
but could not we'll do so on account of rats
which systematically got hold of and car
ried away thr young du, kings. ev, n VIII n
lose t. thelr mother. With a Wv G
circumvrnt the rals. the maternal duck
md her vo NO were housed for lhe night
inder coop which admitted ol no open
inc for the fur. i've intruders. The rats
were not To be So easily cheated of theil
prev. On discovering that the mother
! luck and her family were closely sltrou,led
/ from intrusion, they devised Il plan for en-
I rintrring which was eminen ly successful
/ in the course of single night they eX a
waited tanntl. going below the outer edge
f the coop to the interior; and thus very
neatly, without producing any alarm. stol,
very duckling from under the guardian
! ship of the mother.
Two rats belonging to the same colony
performed Il feat quite as ingen .oas. A
/ rap whirh was baited fer their captur,
was hahilutlly plundered w tlout securing
s!n0lr rat They had evidently invented
some plan for safely stealing away The bait
nj what the plan was could only b'
learned by setting a watch on the trap
The trap was OF kind which is some
ines cmploveA in catching mice. 1t wa
a box with sliding door. which was sus
,aincd bv mechanism connected with tin
bait. On the bait being nibbled at, tn
) .oor descenas and makes the mouse
nIisoner. The TWO rats saw through tn
'ieyice. and rcsorted TO the following yer
Sinlulp but eflectllal method to take ava
he bait. which was Il piece of toas e.
Cheese. and vet escape imprisonment. On
Of them placed itself under the door, 5
. hit it might fall on its back, while tn
other crept in and successfully carried o
the morsel of cheese. Tie first rat the
4, drew itself from under the door, and Jolne
its companion.
Amongst the poultry at a country hous
F.. in Renfrewshire was a turkey-hen tha
. preferred, rs turkeys often do, to make he
nest among hRohcs on the side of bur
/. some three hundred yards from the hous'
| rather than in the clubhouse appropriate
to the poultry. \ magpie. CHANGING TO
: perched one day on a neighboring tre'
: saw the turkey visit her nest, and pounce
/ down upon the newly-laid egg us soon ;
e the turkey had left it, proceeding withol
I loss of time to make a hole in he shell, an
+ extract Il po ton of its contents. Frol
t that day for h, the magpie WAS never al
sent from the vicinity of the nest abot
: th.. hour of the forenoon. when the turke
/ was accustomed to repair to ii. but. seate
: on one or other of The trees. kept watc
Z for the opportunity Of S" delicious a II
past: SO that it was found necessary
f +. How the turkey pretty closely in order
, obtain her egg unbroken by the magp'e
1 bill.
Few anecdotes have been told of the III
t telligence of fishes; and they 10 not ger
orally get credit for much OF 1t. nor do the
probably possess much. Yet that they q
, possess some measure of it appears fror
the well-knOwn tact tnat carp III POno
have learned to come at a certain signal
3 be fed; and something of the same kin
has been observed of some kind OF sea-hs
, in a marine fish-pond. 1t would be wort
while for any one who has an aquarium I
direct his attention to this subject, and
, keep record Of his observa. ions. Oui
, were made on trout in n burn. Its plac
of abode was under stone in small POO
imme lately below wooden bri,ige. owe
: which the path led from the house in whic
, we resided. to the garden. It was pleas
? ing amusement for boys to feed the tror
with worms. which were readily to be prs
cured in the garIen; and the trout WEI
5 fed accordingly. and soon learned to com
out from below the stone. and seize th
: worm thrown into the pool, whatever nun
: Der of spectators might be close at han
: or the bridge. and although some Of tflsI
"a. Al -