Word: rats
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1940-1949
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Rats are as bad as human beings in some ways. In the latest Journal of Wildlife Management, Dr. John B. Calhoun, of Johns Hopkins, discusses one such aspect of the rat world: the troubles which refugee rats have to put up with when they emigrate...
Three's a Crowd. In Oakland, Calif., Mrs. Ida Kelly Vartanian was granted a divorce when she testified that her husband not only refused to keep the house warm enough for her pet rat but criticized it for eating too much...
Shocked Mothers. The rat mothers that worked for Dr. Calvin P. Stone of Stanford did not have so pleasant a time. He gave electroconvulsive shocks to recently bred females. Some produced young, but did not know what to do next. The shake-up apparently destroyed their instinctive knowledge of how to build nests or suckle their infants. They "exhibited no maternal behavior," and acted as if the whole thing had been a dream...
...Father rats pay no attention to their children (they don't know which' are theirs), but mother rats make cozy nests for their six litters a year. They always abandon their young when threatened, but when unmolested show tender regard for their infants' education. No adolescent rat is allowed to leave the nest until old enough to fend for itself. Its mother guides it out, trains it to keep close to walls, teaches it caution by testing all food for poison. -She warns against dogs, cats and traps. Specialist Nicholes believes that rats have some sort...
Neither Traps nor Poison. Rats never wash, says Specialist Nicholes, and seem to delight in filth. They are generally smelly, covered with running sores, fleas and lice. In a pinch they will eat their own young-or other rats caught in traps. But when there is food, a rat somehow contrives to inform his friends, and shares generously. They never lay up food for emergencies, trusting their victim, man, to do it for them...