NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA 



voyage she gnawed a tunnel through the cane 

 bottoms of two dozen chairs, and, carefully shred- 

 ding the cane of the upper ones, she made a cosy 

 nest and was rearing a family of nine children. 



We glibly endeavour to explain the wonderful 

 ways and habits of animals with the term Instinct. 

 Now, the Dictionary definition of Instinct is " A 

 natural, spontaneous impulse, especially in the lower 

 animals, that moves them without reasoning towards 

 the actions that are essential to their existence, 

 preservation and development, and as reason would 

 approve as tending to their welfare or to some 

 useful end." 



Several rats established themselves in the Port 

 Elizabeth Museum, and, owing to its overcrowded 

 condition and the nature of the building, it 

 was impossible to hunt down and kill these pests. 

 They soon began to multiply. Carefully removing 

 anything in the form of food and water, we set a 

 number of traps and succeeded in catching half-a- 

 dozen. The rats soon learned to be wary, however, 

 and although we at intervals employed every 

 purchasable kind of trap, we rarely succeeded in 

 catching a rat. We then resorted to poison, and 

 in this way succeeded in destroying a few, but 

 after a week or so the various poisoned foods and 

 liquids remained untouched. From time to time 

 traps and poisoned food were laid down and, with 

 the exception of an occasional youthful rat, none 

 fell victims. Now we may take it for granted that 

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