. Brehm's Life of animals : a complete natural history for popular home instruction and for the use of schools. Mammalia. Mammals; Animal behavior. THE COTTON RAT. Anions the native species of Rats found in this country is the Cotton Rat, found in the southern states. Like the Black Rat, its numbers are diminishing as those of the Brown Rat increase. (Sigmodon hispidus.) ness and a certain craftiness with the help of which they escape from dangers of the most varied kinds. There have been several accounts of the way in which they remove eggs unbroken. Doubts as to their manner of proceedings a
. Brehm's Life of animals : a complete natural history for popular home instruction and for the use of schools. Mammalia. Mammals; Animal behavior. THE COTTON RAT. Anions the native species of Rats found in this country is the Cotton Rat, found in the southern states. Like the Black Rat, its numbers are diminishing as those of the Brown Rat increase. (Sigmodon hispidus.) ness and a certain craftiness with the help of which they escape from dangers of the most varied kinds. There have been several accounts of the way in which they remove eggs unbroken. Doubts as to their manner of proceedings are no longer justified, since a Man like K. von Dalla Torre related the fol- lowing incident <n 1880, witnessed by himself: "In the cellar of a house at Innsbruck, eggs, which were kept there, were repeatedly found missing this win- ter. Suspicion pointed to the servant girl, who did all she could to prove her innocence, but in vain. In this plight she bethought herself of watching for the thief and by this means she wit- nessed the cunning with which the Rats got at the eggs. The eggs lay piled up in a loose heap, and a greedy Rat emerged from a hole, soon followed by another. The first seized an egg with its fore- paws, and with the aid of the other Rat, pushed it to one side as far as a few gentle shoves would can}' it. Then the first Rat hugged it with its fore-limbs, after the method by which Spiders carry their egg pouches. Of course this Rat could move himself no further, his fore- legs being employed in holding the egg. Then the second Rat seized the tail of the first with its mouth and with apparent ease quickly pulled its compan- ion toward the hole whence they had issued. The whole proceeding, which, concluding from the num- ber of missing eggs, was the result of considerable practice, lasted barely two minutes; one hour after the thievish couple had first appeared on the scene, they reappeared, undoubtedly with the same inten- tion. By the kindness of the fa
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjecta, booksubjectmammals
