1885.] 
The “ Trading-Rat.' > ' > 
6 59 
be crossed to reach it. One person suggested that the rats 
might have rolled them all the way, and across some poles 
thrown over the stream. 
“ Destroying this nest, a couple of rats darted up the 
standing tree, and there we were surprised to find another 
nest had been commenced in the forks of the tree. We 
destroyed this nest also ; but here comes in another mystery, 
a puzzling question— How could the rats climb that tree 
and carry up stores for the winter ? This nest was probably 
25 or 30 feet from the ground. 
I asked a ranchman a few days ago, who was talking 
about them, if he was afraid of them (I meant of their bite). 
‘ No,’ said he, ‘ and they are not afraid of me ; they have 
waked me many a time, sitting up on the floor of my cabin 
and rapping their tails like a dog ! ’ ” 
Mrs. Hatch adds : — “ I have already spoken of their great 
strength and celerity of movements. To an observer these 
traits are a never-failing surprise. If a light is steadily 
burning, and all is quiet, they are easily watched, darting 
backwards and forwards, carrying goods each way, and often 
making long trips. I have known them to bring nails, bits 
of iron, screws, and other things left about the sheds, to the 
house from some distance, placing them on shelves, boxes, 
or kegs, just as they fancied, but all in some selected spot, 
carrying back from cellar and store-house dried prunes, 
apples, rice, and all kinds of eatables. If working in the 
dark the striking of a match, a slight noise, or a sudden 
light will cause them to vanish like a flash. 
“ They seem, too, to have a fancy for certain colours, 
particularly bright red, and will soon make away with gar- 
ments of this colour and attach them to their nests. There 
may be something attractive in the dye, but, knowing their 
partiality for glittering, shining objects, I am inclined to 
think that they have also an eye for colour.” 
We must now endeavour, in examining this account, to 
distinguish between faCt and inference. We may premise 
that we should gladly welcome the demonstration, in any 
species of the lower animals, of the idea of exchange, — 
that of property, real and personal, is indisputably manifest 
in several. 
The faCts really before us are that these “ trading-rats ” 
have been found, in many instances, to bring as well as to 
take away. If they take certain articles from a given 
place, A, to another, B, they are described as bringing to A 
other articles, either from B or from some other place. 
