EATS AND MICE. 
301 
Again, as showing affection for human beings, I may 
quote the following : — * The mouse which had been tamed 
by Baron Trench in his prison having been taken, from 
him, watched at the door and crept in when it was 
opened ; being removed again, it refused all food, and 
died in three days . 5 1 
With regard to general intelligence, every one knovrs 
the extraordinary wariness of rats in relation to traps, 
which is only equalled in the animal kingdom by that of 
the fox and the wolverine. It has frequently been regarded 
as a wonderful display of intelligence on the part of rats 
that while gnawing through the woodwork of a ship, they 
always stop before they completely perforate the side ; 
but, as Mr. Jesse suggests, this is probably due to their 
distaste of the salt water. No such disparaging explanation, 
however, is possible in some other instances of the display 
of rat-intelligence. Thus, the manner in which they 
transport eggs to their burrows has been too frequently 
observed to admit of doubt. Rodwell gives a case in 
which a number of eggs were carried from the top of a 
house to the bottom by two rats devoting themselves to 
each egg, and alternately passing it down to each other at 
every step of the staircase . 2 Dr. Carpenter also received 
from an eye-witness a similar account of another instance . 3 
According to the article in the Quarterly Review , already 
mentioned, rats will not only convey eggs from the top of 
the house to the bottom, but from bottom to top. 6 The 
male rat places himself on his fore-paws, with his head 
downwards, and raising up his hind legs and catching 
the egg between them, pushes it up to the female, who 
stands on the step above, and secures it with her fore-paws 
till he jumps up to her; and this process is repeated from 
step to step till the top is reached.’ 
6 The captain of a merchantman,’ says Mr. Jesse, 
* trading to the port of Boston, in Lincolnshire, had con- 
stantly missed eggs from his sea stock. He suspected 
that he was robbed by his crew, but not being able to dis- 
- Thompson, Passions of Animals, p. 368. 
2 The Rat, its Natural History p s 102. 
8 Mrs. Lee, Anecdotes of Animals, p. 264. 
