COUNTRY LIFE
LETTERS have descended on me from many counties and many classes observers protesting against " tall," as applicable to a story concerning rat that carried off a hen's egg by lying on its back and inducing ano rat to drag him sledge-wise. No one sends a photograph of the feat, but one correspondent saw an illustration of it in a child's ma of repute. The amount of what Gilbert calls " corroborative de giving " artistic verisimilitude to an otherwise bald and unconvin narrative " makes a formidable total. Well, the rat was once quoted research workers in biology as the cleverest of all English wild a That it can carry off eggs without breaking them, and very frequ does so, is quite certain, and two co-operators may be necessary
success. It seems that the incident should have been described as " short " story, not a tall. I have known both a spaniel and a ; to carry eggs in the mouth without cracking them, the first a partrid egg, the second a duck's. The delicacy of touch shown in these formances is in itself remarkable ; and one wonders why the booty kept so long in store. The duck's egg referred to was left uneaten a litter of cubs ; and the rats were alleged to have collected as many 25 hens' eggs. It is almost a common experience to discover hoards, belonging to mice, rats or squirrels, left wholly untouched the middle of the hungry months.
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