RURAL GLEANINGS. 



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such firmness as obstinately to retain any substance that may be placed 

 in between to prevent their union. The following circumstance, which 

 appeared in the Hull Advertiser a few months ago, affords an amusing 

 instance of the exercise of this muscular power : " Tuesday night 

 the family of Mr. Jennison, fishmonger, Queen-street, were alarmed 

 by a great noise in the shop, and suspecting some persons had broken 

 in, one of them went to the place, when to his surprise he found the 

 disturber of his repose not a human but a four-footed thief, namely a 

 rat, who in helping himself to an oyster on the shop-board (as we are 

 informed is the custom with this species), had his intruding paw so 

 firmly clenched in the grasp of the assailed oyster as to render his 

 escape impossible." In Borlase's Natural History of Cornwall is a 

 quotation from Mr. Carew's Survey of Cornwall, giving an account of 

 three mice being similarly caught by an oyster ; indeed the case is 

 nearly parallel to the preceding. He tells us of one " whose shell 

 being opened as is usual at the time of flood (when these fishes parti- 

 cipate and enjoy the returning tide) three mice eagerly attempted to 

 seize it, but the oyster clasping fast its shell killed them all." The 

 same writer also informs us of the cautious method employed by the 

 lobster to procure the oyster from between its strong resisting shells, 

 as he was informed by a clergyman of great veracity, who had the 

 account from a creditable eye-witness to the fact. " As he was walking 

 one day, a fisherman observed a lobster attempt to get at an oyster 

 several times, but as soon as the lobster approached the oyster shut his 

 shell ; at length the lobster, having awaited with great attention till 

 the oyster opened again, made a shift to throw a stone between the 

 gaping shells, sprung upon its prey and devoured it." Most readers 

 conversant with natural history, from the many instances on record are 

 aware, I presume, that the monkey has recourse to the same ingenious 

 plan to secure the oyster as its food. In Brown's " Anecdotes of 

 Quadrupeds," we are told that " Gemelli Carreri, in his voyage round 

 the world, relates a circumstance concerning the ouran-outang in his 

 wild state, which is indicative of very considerable powers both of 

 reflection and invention. When the fruits on the mountains are ex- 

 hausted, they will frequently descend to the sea coast, where they feed 

 on various species of shell-fish, but in particular on a large sort of 

 oyster which commonly lies upon the shore. ' Fearful,' he says, ' of 

 putting in their paws lest the oyster should close and crush them, they 

 insert a stone as a wedge within the shell, and then they drag out their 

 prey and devour it at their leisure.' Milo of old might have saved his 



