Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 53, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 March 1920 — Many Places Are Named for Ornithologist and Artist [ARTICLE]

Many Places Are Named for Ornithologist and Artist

John James Audubon, famed ornithologist and artist will not be forgotten so long as New York lives. In the upper section of the city there la a fine street named after him; there is Audubon park, Audubon theater, a hundred pr'so Audubon restaurants; a telephone exchange is Audubon and the old Audubon mansion at One Hundred and Fifty-fifth streets and Riverside drive still stands. In thia ancient dwelling remains the artist’s studio and the laundry tn which was Installed by his friend Morse the telegraphic instrument by which was transmitted the flrat long-distance rr-p t- J

We rend much about animal sagacity and there is a common query: “Which Is the moat intelligent animal?” This query, writes Raymond L. Ditmars In Boys’ Life, most frequently relates to the results In training animals to do surprising things or to do the "smart" tilings that many captive animals do. Association with the human and the artificial conditions of captivity bring forth many surprising traits in animals, but such have little to do with this story. When the writer Is asked which he considers the most Intelligent animal he has no hesitation In answering, although the. subject designated may cause much surprise. Despite the adoption of the horse and the elephant to domestic use, the docility and affection of the dog, the marvelous feats accomplished by trained sea lions and other marked demonstrations of intelligence among the larger animals, the writer is unwavering in his decision, and this comes after years of observation and deduction. He picks the beaver as the star of animal sagacity. And the choice comes from an order of mammals not usually credited with a high degree of Intelligence. This Is the order of rodents, or gnawing animals. It contains an Immense number of species, the greater number of small size and scattered over all parts of the world. To this order belongs the rats and mice, the squirrel, porcupine, rabbit and marmots. The prairie “dog" is a member of this order and a fair rival of the beaver in solving problems of Ingenious construction. All the rodents are characteristic In having strangely developed incisor teeth—those immediately at the front of both the upper and lower jaw. These teeth, proportionately larger and longer than with other animals, are continually growing and their edges meet In a fashidh to become much sharpened during constant use like a double set of rapidly moving chisels. Thus the rat gnaws holes through wood and plaster, the squirrel gnaws through the shells of the hardest nuts and the porcupine—much to the chagrin of the camper—chisels out a generous hole in one’s camera In solving the nature of the interior.