Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 7.djvu/131

Rh A New Order of Mammals.—At a recent meeting of the Connecticut Academy, Prof. O. C. Marsh called attention to the very peculiar character of the extinct animal type, Tillotherium. So remarkable, indeed, are these characters that Prof. Marsh considers them sufficient to constitute a new order, for which he proposes the name Tillodontia. In Tillotherium, the type of the proposed new order, the skull has the same general form as in the bears, but in its structure it resembles that of the ungulates. The molar teeth are of the ungulate type, and in each jaw there is a pair of large scalpriform incisors, as in rodents. The articulation of the lower jaw with the skull corresponds to that in ungulates. The skeleton mostly resembles that of carnivores, especially the Ursidæ, but the scaphoid and lunar bones are not united, and there is a third trochanter on the femur. The feet are plantigrade, like those of the bears. Thus these singular animals combine the characters of three distinct groups—carnivores, ungulates, and rodents. The order comprises two distinct families—Tillotheridæ, in which the large incisors grew from persistent pulps, while the molars have roots; and Stylinodontidæ, in which all the teeth are rootless.

Animal Intelligence.—The following remarkable examples of animal intelligence are sent us by correspondents who vouch for their truth: A lady living in this city relates that the house occupied by herself and family became so infested with rats that, in the failure of all other means, they were obliged to resort to poison to exterminate them. Phosphorus-paste was used, spread thickly over meat, which was then placed where the rats could readily get at it. Pursuing this plan for a long time, they were surprised to find that, while the meat regularly disappeared, the rats remained, their numbers apparently increasing instead of diminishing. One day a man in charge of an adjoining stable asked who was trying to poison rats, and, being told, replied, "the rats are too smart for you." He led the lady to the alley alongside the house, where there was a hydrant, the nozzle of which being broken off, left the water constantly running. Under the hydrant they saw several pieces of meat, some partially covered with, and others entirely destitute of, any traces of the phosphorus-paste. After watching sometime, the lady actually saw the rats not only eat the washed meat, but carry the coated pieces carefully in their mouths from her back-door around into the alley, and deposit them under the running stream of the hydrant. Our correspondent says that the rats may not have known the character of the coating on the meat, but that their course argues a knowledge of the properties of water, and a power of adapting means to ends, akin to reason.

An esteemed friend writes us of a dog, that had been savagely set upon by a neighbor's dog, rousing up with a growl when the circumstance was spoken of in his presence. This was noticed, and, on repeating the circumstances, when the neighbor's name and that of his dog were mentioned, the growling was repeated. No effort was made to attract the dog's attention, and it was easy to excite the animal at any time by mentioning these names in his hearing.

A lady in Troy has a terrier, whose ability to understand what is said to him seems remarkable. The lady sent him one day to drive some chickens out of the yard, but doing it roughly the lady said, "See, some of the chickens are little, you must be careful not to hurt them." The dog immediately flew at the large ones, but drove the little ones with great care, and always afterward observed the same caution. This terrier attended church regularly with his mistress, but one Sunday another dog attracted his attention in church, and he ran out, afterward returning to the pew. After getting home the lady said, "Whiskey was naughty today; he mustn't go to church any more." The dog hung his head and went to his bed. He made no attempt to go to church that afternoon nor ever again, though ready to go anywhere else.

The Deep-Sea Bottom.—Prof. W. B. Carpenter, in a paper recently published in Nature dissents from the conclusions of Prof Wyville Thomson, that the organisms Globigerinæ, whose shells compose the ooze of the deep-sea bottom, live and multiply in the upper waters only. He has