Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1876-01-08
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OLYMPIA WASHINGTON TERRITORY SATURDAY MORNING JAN

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arrangement of the basins, such that, the
rats could not get upon the edges Of
them, put an end to all further depre-
dations Of this kind. o os1.s l'do3 2FN7
|, a family in d country house IN Hert-
fordshire had a fancy for rearing ducks,
but could not we'll do SO On ioccount Of
rats which systematically got hold of
and carried away the young ducklings,
even from close to their mother. With
a view to circumvent the rats, the ma
/ ternal duck and her young were housed
for the night, undera coop, which ad-
mitted OF no opening for fnrtiye intrud-
ers. The rats were not to be, so easily
| cheated OF their prey. On discovering
that the mother duck and her family
were closely shrouded from intrusion
they devised plan of engineering
which was eminently successful. In
the course of q single night they exca-
waited a 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 of the mother.
! Two rats belonging to the same col
ony performed feat quite as aingeni-
GUS. A trap which was baited for their
capture was habitually plundered with.
out securing single rat. They had
evidently invented some plan for safely
stealing away the bait, and what the
plan was coulddonly be learned by set
ting o watch on the. trap, The trap
was Of the kind which is sometimes em-i
ployed for catching mice. 1t was
box with a sliding door, which was sus-
tanned by mechanism connected with
the bait. On the bait being nibbled
at, the door descends and makes the
mouse prisoner. The two rats saw
through the device, and re sorted to the
following very simple but effectual
method to take away the, bait, which
was, piece of toasted cheese, and yet
escape imprisonment. One of them
placed itself under the door, SO that it
might fall on its back while the other
! crept in and successfully carried off
the morsel Of cheese. The first rat
then drew itself from under the door,,
and joined its companion. ''lF s1i I'D
I Amongst the poultry at a country
house in Renfrewshire was q turkey hen
that preferred, as turkeys often do. to
make her nest among bushes on the
side of a burn, some three; hundred
yards from the. house, rather than in,
the outhonse' appropriated to thepoul-
try. A magpie CHANGED to be perched
one day on q neiehboring tree, saw the
turkey visit hernest, and pounced down
on the newly-laid egg as soon as the
turkey had leftit, proceeding without
loss. of time to make hole in the shell,
and extract a portion of its contents.
From that day forth, the magpie was
never absent from the vicinity Of the
nest about the hour Of the forenoon,
when the turkey was accustomed tore
pair to it, but, seated on one or other
of the trees, kept watch for the oppor-
tunity Of so delicious repast; so that
it was found necessary to follow the
turkey pretty closely in orderito obtain
her egg unbroken by the magpie's bill.
Few anecodes have been told of the'I
intelligence of fishes, and they do mot
generally get credit for much Of it, nor
do they probably possess much, Yet
that they do possess some measure .of
| it appears from the well1known@ fact
that carppin ponds have learned toI
come at O. certain signal to be fed and
something of the same kind Las, been
observed of come kind of sea-fish in
marine fish-pond 1t t'would be worth |
while for any one who has an aquarium |
to direct his attention to this subject
and to keep q record ofhis observations,
Ours were made on trout in burn.
Its place of abode was under,a stone in
small pool, Immediately below al
wooden bridge, over which the path
led, from the house in which we resided, !
to the garden. I was pleasing amuse- |
ment for boys to feed the trout with !
worms, which We're readily to be pro-
cured in the garden, and the trout
was fed accordingly, and soon learned
to come out from below the stone, and
seize the worm thrown out into the
pool, whatever number of spectators
might be close at hand on the bridge,
and although some of them might be a
little noisy. But it was thought pro-
tper to try trick upon the poor fish,
and present, him with Avery small,
long radish instead of an angle worm. |
Out came the trout at once-the rad
ish, in shape and color, being much
like a worm--and caught il ere it
reached the bottom, but quickly spat it
out again, and retreated to the shelter
of the stone. Once or twice afterwards
the trick was successfully repeated;
but the trout soon learned to distins,
guish radish from q worm, and ceased
to come out for the one, although
prompt enough in coming for the
other. b -l1a.-..all- 1ol
x That Dundee, Mich, man who
died five minutes after his marriage
must have been q sensitive soul. Poor