Year: 1873

Will Instinct Do So Much?


From Chambers Journal.


A small menagerie exhibited at


fair in village in Ayrshire wa


much rcwded with visitors Anon


the animals was brown bear, nc


shut up in cage, but fastened by


chain in a corner of the area, whic


was fenced off by slight rail, tina


people might not go too near him


A woman who was there with bas


ket, selling gingerbread. however


went so near, that Bruin, putting


forth his huge paw, clutched thu


basket, which he quickly drew from


her hand, emptying most of its con
tents upon the ground within the
space allotted TO himself. She be
gan to make some attempt to recov
er her gingerbread, but the animal
offering no violent resistance, quiet
ly lay down upon it, and then pro
ceeded to draw it forth piece by
piece, and TO eat it at his leisure
Something of reason was surely dis
played by the bear in adopting this
method to secure possession of the
gingerbread.


Cats are quite clever in the act oil
opening latches, when it suits their
purpose. A family in one of the
northern outskirts of London were o
good deal annoyed with the frequent
robbery of their larder, a smaller
clubhouse behind their dwelling. Legs
of lamb and other articles were de-
voured or carried off, and no one
could tell how The theft was mys
tery One of the servants determined
to discover the delinquent. She &C
cordingly watched, and one night
found that the thieves were set of
cats belonging to the neighborhood
The larder had latch which had to
he pressed7down in opening the door.
No cat could properly press it down
by springing from the ground. There
was, however, an adjoining wall. from
which cats might leap and risk the
depression of the latch as they sue
cessively passed. This was what
they did: They leaped from the wall
one after the other, each trying to
depress the latch as it passed, until
one cat more fortunate than the 9th
ers made the needful depression
with its paw. The door Immediately
was opened, and leg of mutton
which had been the object of siege,
was secured, and eaten all but the
bones. Was there not much sagacious
planning in this piece of robbery by
cats? We think there was-almost
as much as we see demonstrated in
some of the meaner departments of
the human species. The incident
took place lately.


Many instances have been recorded
of the display of Intelligence by
rats, to which we beg leave to add
the following: A 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
unwarrantable liberty of dipping
pieces of bread in it, but she could
find nothing to confirm this suspicion;
and by-and-by she noticed strange
little streaks of cream on the edges
of the milk basins. as if a string
had been dipped in and drawn out,
so as to leave mark. AT last she
discovered the secret. The cream
was stolen by rats, which got upon
The edges of the earthenware basins
containing the milk, and not being
able to reach down to it, depth of
several inches. nor daring to attempt
to 90 down, as they could never 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
ment 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. There was
surely something more than instinct
in this case in the procedure of the
rats.


We nave something still to tell re-
garding the ingenuity of rats. A
family in country house in Hertford
shire had fancy for rearing ducks,
but could not well do so on account
of rats, which Systematically got
hold of and carried away the young
ducklings even from close to their
mother. With view to circumvent
the rats, the maternal duck and her
young were housed for the night un-
der a coop. which admitted of no
opening for the furtive intruders
The rats were not to be so easily
cheated of their prey. On discover
ing that the mother duck and her
family were closely shrouded from
intrusion, they devised pretty plan
of engineering, which was eminently
successful. In the course of single
night they excavated tunnel, going
below the outer edge of the coop to
Its interior, and thus very neatly,