The Arkansaw traveler., 1885-08-22
The Accomplished Rat.
London Standard.l


 Rats, and cats and dogs we have al- ways with us, and yet it would be rash to affirm that every-or even tithe-of the tales told regarding them are accurate. The desire to be the owner of remarka- ble animal, or to be the retailer of re- markable anecdote, has often poisoned ONT sources of information. The biogra- phies of some of the most familiar |" yer min have still to be written. Rats were favorite subjects of FrAak Buckland's, and another enthusiast has, we believe, dedicated volume to their vAys of life. A cage is, however, not quite the place in which to watch so timid brute. Hence, numerous though the stories regarding them are, it is often difficult to separate the fact from the fiction. How they de sert unseaworthy ships is, of course, pro- verbal, but the statement is still scarcely entitled to higher rank. Again, it is con6deutially related that they have been known to empty jam pots and oil jars by gnawing tiny holes in the covers, and then dipping their tails into the contents Agaiu-credant /ud9i-they have been declared to carry of poisoned meat, place 1t under hydrant, and then, after the p69tC W69 hCtDONCQ OY LuC water, feed freely on the bait intended for their destruction. They have even been described as reaching water by holding each other by the tail until living chain was formed.
 That they carry of eggs is an observa- tion too familiar to the housewife. But If we are to credit the latest story, the way in which this is accomplished is more remark able than anything which has preceded it in the way of rat stories. It is said that this Is gone about on the cooperative principle. One rat clasps the egg in his paws, while his partner in robbery lower him to the ground, and then drag him to their retreat lying on his back with the plunder firmly embraced by his four feet In brief, he utilizes his body as a sledge This tale is repeated by two people in no way in collision with each other, so that 1t would be unreasonable to pronounce 1t unfounded. If so, 1t shows that-as Mir. Romanes argues with sound sense-the old-fashioned distinction between instinct and reason is no longer tenable The one only differs from the other In degree, not in kind, and we have no right to de- scribe the one by lofty name simply be- NooSS ~ tS 0A lAtClICItu&l PIOOSSS DIACs ticed by an animal higher in the scale of life than the other. This latest fact-for fact we presume 1t to be-also demon strates how valuable is any careful ob- servation honestly noted at the time and accurately recorded without embellish- ment or bias. Nor is it fair to stigmatize the old data as erroneous simply because they do not fit in with later observations The habits of animals change with cir cumstances. It is, for example, notorious that many birds which at one time roasted on the ground have, since the in. troduction of vermin which molest them. perched on trees, and that animals which at first were fearless Of man have learned through fatal experience, which they have transmitted to their offspring, to circum- vent his wiles by expedients unknown to and not required by their ancestors. It is also all but certain that the habits of an animal of the same species will be differ ent in different parts of the country. The beaver in British Columbia does not as suredly build those extraordinary houses which they door did-in eastern Amer lea and the Hanoverian rat" now that 1t has no longer to wage an unequal war fare with the almost vanished old Eng fish MHs yaft1s, may have strangely al tered its habits. The struggle for exist ence Is no longer so keen. In like man. ner 1t is open to debate whether the latter, which is in reality native of India, after it had exterminated the indigenous spe- Ces encountered on its travels, may not have taken life more easily than before it had to face the Mns decHmanns of Gen. tral Asia.