The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1884-09-06
The Intelligence Of tI;a Rat.


The extraordinary intelligence of a
rat IS told the readers of Nature by Mr..
L. w. Kirk, Wellington, New Zealand,
as follows: 81 was standing in the door
way OF large shed, the further end OF
which had been partitioned off with bars
to form fowl-house, when | was at
tracted by a gnawing and scraping
noise; turning round i saw a rat run
for a large dog biscuit, which was living
on the floor, and pass through the bars.
Beng curious to watch The would return
Kept quiet, and presently saw we'll
grown specimen of the common brown
rat mus decas?79q?guS} come cautiously
forward, and after nibbling for short
time at the biscuit drag it toward the
bars, which are only two inches apart,
and would not allow the biscuit to pass.
After several unsuccessful attempts he
lett 1t, and in about five minutes returned
with another rat, rather smaller than
himself. He then came through the
bars, and, pushing his nose under the
biscuit, gradually tipped it on edge, rat
number two pulling vigorously from
the other side; by this means they
finally succeeded In getting a four inch
biscuit through a two-inch aperture.
Not feeling pleased that my dogs bis
cult should be used as food for rats, |
threw hammer at them and picked up
the biscuit.
Il think the conduct of these ami
mails showed wonderful amount of in
tdrligenee; it was evident that the first
rat saw that to get the biscuit through
the bars it was necessary that it should
be on its edge, and, not being able to
tip it and pull it at the same time, he
gained the assistance of friend,
''Ihe short space of time during
action, show also that they must have
some wonderfully facile means Of COM
municating ideas"
Mr.. Henry MacCormac, CORES
pondent OF the same publication at Bel
fast, Ireland, has contributed few re-
markable cat stories. He said:
"About twenty miles from this in the
town of Larne, there resides q gentle
man in the possession of a cat, which is
so great u fayOrite that every day a
plate and chair are placed for her be-
side her master, whose repast she shares
with supreme content.
zone day for some reason the dinner
was postponed, but the cat came in at
the usual hour. She was evidently
disconnected at seeing nothing going on,
walked once or twice disconsolately
round the table, then disappeared.
Shortly afterward she returned with
mouse, which she laid on her masters
plate, then going away, she came back
a second time with a mouse which she
put on her own plate. She postponed
further proceedings until her master
return, when she Immediately began to
pur and rub herself against his legs, as
much as to say, See how nicely | have
provided for YOU
''Between this town and village of
Hollywood there is a country house
which happened to take fire last week.
The cat of the house, which had access
to the servant-maid's apartments, ran
up and paved the young woman's face.
Being very drowsy, the girl turned to
sleep afresh. The cat, however, after
some interval returned, and proceeded
to scratch the girls face to such pur-
pose that she rose, and, smelling the
fire, wakened the other members of the
household and the flames were ex-
tinguished.
"a nephew of mine, who is fond of
cats, generally keeps three or four and
by dint of pains and kindness teaches
them variety of tricks. saw one of
them slipping cream from teaspoon
which it held between its two forepaws.
l might relate quite a number of other
particulars about cats, but do not like
to trespass further on your space. The
foregoing, along with the other details
which | have already furnished are,
perhaps, not unworthy to be placed be-
side the interesting particulars narrated
by the younger Cuvier and Mr..
Romanes in reference to the intelli-
gence of animals"