436 ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE. 



rabbits. When sitting at my window, I have observed these 

 two dogs, which were at large in the yard, approach and make 

 signs to each other, and first glancing at ine, as if to see if I 

 offered any obstacle to their wishes, step away very gently, then 

 quicken their pace when they were at a little distance from my 

 sight, and finally dart off at full speed when they thought I 

 could neither see them nor order them back. Surprised at this 

 mysterious manoeuvre, I followed them, and witnessed a sin- 

 gular sight. The pointer, who seemed to be the leader of the 

 enterprise, had sent the spaniel out to beat the bushes, and give 

 tongue at the opposite extremity of the bushwood. As to 

 himself, he made with slow steps the circuit of the wood by 

 following it along the border, and I observed him stop before a 

 passage much frequented by rabbits, and there point. T con- 

 tinued at a distance to observe how the intrigue was going to 

 end. At length I heard the spaniel, which had started a hare, 

 drive it with much tongue towards the place where its com- 

 panion was lying in ambush, and the moment that the hare 

 came out of the passage to gain the fields, the latter darted 

 upon it and brought it to me with an air of triumph. I have 

 seen these two dogs repeat this same manoeuvre more than a 

 hundred times ; and this conformity has convinced me that it 

 was not accidental, but the result of a concerted agreement and 

 combined plan of operations understood beforehand. 



Again, among Mr. Darwin's MSS., I find a letter from 

 Mr. H. Reeks (1871), which says that the wolves of New- 

 foundland adopt exactly the same stratagem for the cap- 

 ture of deer in winter as that which is adopted by the 

 hunters. That is to say, some of the pack secrete them- 

 selves in one or more of the leeward deer-paths in the 

 forest or * belting,' while one or two wolves make a 

 circuit round the herd of deer to windward. The herd 

 invariably retreats by one of its accustomed runs, and ' it 

 rarely happens .... that the wolves do not manage by 

 this stratagem to secure a doe or young stag.' And 

 Leroy, in his book on Animal Intelligence, narrates closely 

 similar facts of the wolves of Europe as having fallen 

 within his own observation. 



