Ellsworth American., 1877-11-01
Vol. XIII. Whole No. l24O. No. "a.
Ingenuity Of Rats.
STORIES ABOUT THEM.

farmers wife In the west OF Scotland.
remarked that the cream on the surface of
the milk In her dairy was often interfered
with. At first she suspected that some of
her children had taken the uuwarrantable
liberty of dipping pieces OF bread In 1t.
but she could find nothing to confirm this
suspicion; and, by and by, she noticed
strange little streaks of cream on the edge
OF the milk basins. as If a string had been
dipped In aud drawn out so as to leave a
mark. At last she discovered the secret.
The cream was stolen by rats, which got
upon the edges of the earthen-ware basins
containing the milk. and not being able to
reach down to 1t, depth OF several inches,
nor daring to attempt to go down. as they
never could 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
men of the basins, such that the rats could
not get upon the edges of them, put All
end to all further depredations OF this
kind. There was surely something more
than instinct in this case In the procedure
of the rats. We have something still to
tell concerning the ingenuity of rats =
A family 10 the country house In Hert-
forshire had a fancy for rearing ducks.
but could not well do so on account OF
rats, which systematically got hold OF and
and carried away the young ducklings,
even from close to their mother With 8
view to circumvent the rats, the maternal
duck and her young were housed for the
night under a coop, which admitted OF no
opening for the furtive intruders. The
rats were not to be so easily cheated out OF
their prey. On discovering that the moth
er duck and her family were closely
shrouded from intrusion, they devised 3
petty plan OF engineering, which was emf
nehtiy successful. In the course of a sim
gle night they excavated tunnel, going
below the outer edge OF the coop to its in-
terror, and thus very neatly, without pro-
ducing any alarm, stole every duckling
from under the guardianship of the mother.
Two rats belonging TO the same colony,
performed feat quite as Ingenious
trap which was baited for their cap
ture, was habitually plundered without Sc
curing a single rat. They had evidently
invented some plan for their safely steal
Ing away the bait. and what the plan was,
could only be learned by setting watch
on the trap. We shall explain how the
theft was effected. The trap was one o(
the kind which Is sometimes employed for
catching mice. II WAS a box with a slid
Ing door which was sustained by mechsn-
ism 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 resorted
70 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 him
self under the door, so that it might fall
on his back while the other crept In and
successfully carried off the morsel of
cheese The first rat then drew himself
from under the door, and joined his com
panon. This demonstration Of rat intel
iigencr. like the preceding incident, is Of
recent cccurrence.-l Sci.