44 



The order Rodentia as a whole does not stand high in point of 

 intelligence from an anatomical aspect, the brain being proportionally 

 small in size and with few convolutions. Some notable excejjtions to 

 this ruling will occur to tnost of us. As an instance, our common rat 

 displays a wonderful amount of ingenuity in applying means to an end. 

 A case illastrative of its resources came to my knowledge a short time 

 ago. The occurrence took place this winter. One of my neighbors 

 having placed a basket containing eggs on a shelf at the head of a stair- 

 way leading down to a cellar, went the following morning to get some 

 of them ; to her astonishment they had all disappeared without a trace 

 of the remover. Knowing that there were a few rats about, suspicion 

 fell on them and justly so. An investigation having been made the 

 eggs were all found sound and whole under the cellar floor fifteen or 

 twenty feet away. How the rats managed with the resoui'ces at their 

 command to take the eggs out of a basket and carry them down a stair- way 

 without breaking even one, certainly points to the fact that their reasoning 

 faculties were exercised to some purpose. Another illustration and I 

 am done. I am indebted to a friend for it. He does not vouch for its 

 authenticity as he did not see it himself. One Mr. Cobb, a respectable 

 gentleman of Lusty Mills, Kentucky, says he saw a Squirrel acting in a 

 very peculiar manner on the top of a tree, and it caused him to stop 

 and watch its actions. Pretty soon it came down the tree bearing a 

 bunch of somethincf in its mouth and went directlv to the creek. 

 When it got to the edge of the water it turned around and backed into 

 the creek until the water covered it entirely except the tip of its nose, 

 when it let so the bunch which floated off" down the creek. In gratifv- 

 ing his curiosity Mr. Cobb went down and got the bunch and found, he 

 says, a million fleas on it. 



It is very doubtful if we, who claim to be the lords of creation, 

 with all our boosted intelligence, could devise a better plan for persuad- 

 ing undesirable and uuwelcoine visitors to so quietly take their 

 departure. 





