44 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



they all ate, or rather gorged it, the deceived dog looking vacant and 

 bewildered for a moment, after which he sat under the tree and barked 

 at them inanely." 



Crows have also been observed to hold general assemblies whose 

 functions seem to be those of a criminal court. It often takes a day 

 or two for the meeting to assemble; a palaver is then held, at the close 

 of which the whole body sets upon two or three apparent culprits and 

 kills them. No witness of such a scene can fail to be convinced that 

 the accused have had a fair trial, and have not been put to death with- 

 out cause. 



The higher mental faculties are moi*e developed in the elephant 

 than in any other animal, except the dog and the monkey. The gen- 

 eral fact that elephants are habitually employed in parts of India for 

 storing timber, building, etc., shows a high level of docile intelligence. 

 But perhaps in no labor in which they are employed do they display a 

 more wonderful sagacity than in helping to catch wild elephants. A 

 herd of wild elephants is driven into a corral, and two tame ones rid- 

 den in among them. The decoys will crowd up on either side of a 

 wild one, and protect the nooser until a rope is fastened round the 

 wild elephant's leg, when the tame one, to whose collar the other end 

 of the rope is attached, will drag the captive out, and wind the rope 

 round a tree, while the other decoy prevents any interference from the 

 herd, and pushes the captive toward the tree, thus enabling the first 

 one to take in the slack of the rope. The conduct of the tame ones 

 during all these proceedings is truly wonderful. They display the 

 most perfect conception of every movement, both of the object to be 

 attained and of the means to accomplish it. On one occasion, in tying 

 up a large elephant, he contrived, before he could be hauled close up 

 to the tree, to walk once or twice round it, carrying the rope with 

 him ; the decoy, perceiving the advantage he had thus gained over the 

 nooser, walked up of her own accord, and pushed him backward with 

 her head, till she made him unwind himself again ; upon which the 

 rope was hauled tight and made fast. 



One could almost fancy there was a display of dry humor in the 

 manner in which the decoys thus play with the fears of the wild herd, 

 and make light of their efforts at resistance. When reluctant they 

 shove them forward, when violent they drive them back ; when the 

 wild ones throw themselves down, the tame ones butt them with head 

 and shoulders and force them up again ; and, when it is necessary to 

 keep them down, they kneel upon them, and prevent them from rising, 

 till the ropes are secured. 



A remarkable degree of cunning was displayed by an elephant who 

 had been chained to a tree, and whose driver had then made an oven 

 at a short distance, into which he put some rice-cakes to bake. The 

 man covered his cakes with stones and grass, and went away. When 

 he was gone, the elephant with his trunk unfastened the chain round 



