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HARD WICKE ' S S CIE NCE-GO SSI P. 



think, how must we explain all the voluntary actions 

 which are so adapted to the occasion, and such as a 

 man similarly situated would perform ? I could 

 enumerate some highly interesting facts concerning 

 what I will call spontaneous intelligence ; but they 

 would occupy too much space. I will only say that 

 if brutes were able to communicate their thoughts 

 to one another as easily as humans, they would display 

 still higher intelligence. If I could not converse 

 with my fellow-man, I should be ignorant of much 

 that I have learnt. I believe that animals have 

 reasoning souls like men, but their powers of ex- 

 changing thoughts are inferior to ours, thus accounting 

 for their inferior intelligence ; but this inferiority is 

 one of degree and not kind. — A. W. King, Blackburn. 



Instinct and Reason. — To me it seems that any 

 one who knows the meaning of the word "reason," 

 and denies to animals the thing, must be one of those 

 men who seeing, see not, and hearing, do not under- 

 stand. It is to me beyond belief that a man who has 

 kept a pet, or has walked about with his eyes open, 

 or has read or heard trustworthy tales of animals, if 

 he knows the meaning of the two words, holds that 

 animals have only "instinct," and not "reason." 

 — H.B. From the " Rights of an Animal ; a New 

 Essay in Ethics," by Edward Byron Nicholson, M.A. 



Eye-bright {Euphrasia officinalis). — This plant has 

 been very luxuriant this season in some districts. One 

 place in the neighbourhood of Park Place, Henley-on- 

 Thames, was completely covered in August with its 

 pretty white flowers. On the railway banks between 

 Pinner and Bushey, I gathered plants with stems from 

 10 to 14 inches, with unusually fine flowers. The 

 centaury {Erythnea Centaitrium), has also been very 

 fine and plentiful. Possibly the unprecedented wet 

 season may have been favourable to both plants. 

 Perhaps some of your numerous readers may have 

 noticed a similar condition of both plants in other 

 districts.— y. IV. Ode!!, Pinner. 



Intelligence in Ants.— Whilst weeding in the 

 garden last August, I broke open the upper galleries 

 of a nest of small black ants, and in so doing scattered 

 a number of eggs, which had been carried up from 

 below, that they might be warmed by the sun, which 

 at the time was shining brightly. As I watched the 

 ants gathering them into the nest, I noticed a little 

 fellow dragging one, two or three times larger than 

 himself, up what must have seemed to him a very 

 steep hill ; at last he stuck fast, and, after a few 

 plucky efforts, he left the egg, made a few casts round 

 the ground to see how the "land lay," and then 

 returned to the egg, which he pulled up an easy 

 ascent, of which he had been in search, and which 

 was in quite another direction to the one in which he 

 was going when he stuck fast. — Thomas Winder, 

 Sheffield. 



Sagacity of a Pony. — Having read with very 

 great interest the numerous papers which have lately 

 appeared in Science-Gossip and "Nature" upon 

 the "Intelligence in Man and Animals," I venture to 

 add to the already large list on the subject, by sending 

 the following remarks upon a remarkable pony, which 

 some short time since might have been seen daily 

 grazing on the Cirencester College cricket-ground. 

 The principal of that college kindly furnished my 

 brother (one of the professors of the college) with 

 the previous history of this sagacious animal, known 

 by the name of Grimm, and it is as follows : Grimm 

 was born and bred on the estate of Mr. Mussel, of 

 Aden, near Aberdeen, Scotland, and sold by him, in 



1852, to a gentleman who required a pony to carry 

 his wife during his walking expeditions in Perthshire, 

 with this caution, "Never drive him, or he will 

 break your neck," as he had been notorious for 

 previous bad conduct, and had previously smashed a 

 pony-carriage. In the stable and in the field he was 

 gentleness itself, but was found to be very headstrong 

 and conceited (if one may attribute such a quality to 

 a pony), and the few misfortunes that befell him 

 during the thirty-four years of his life, his kind and 

 indulgent owners attributed to this defect in his 

 character. During Grimm's walking expeditions he 

 must have played his mistress some very odd tricks, 

 which she truly states must have cost thought and 

 preparation, for he apparently always made his own 

 arrangements for the day. One hot afternoon his 

 mistress wished to ride some four miles to meet her 

 husband, who was returning from Edinburgh. Until 

 they arrived at a certain hill, Grimm was in all 

 respects a model pony, when suddenly at this point 

 he stopped, having decided that so far he would go, 

 and no farther. All his mistress's endeavours to make 

 him descend the hill were fruitless. At last, tired out 

 with his rearing and jumping, she unadvisedly did, 

 what he had along intended she should do, dis- 

 mounted, and dragged him down the hill by the 

 bridle, and then hoping she had won the day, she put 

 her foot into the stirrup to spring into the saddle, but 

 he had been waiting for that moment, and before 

 she could accomplish her purpose, found herself flat 

 on the road, and on looking round, saw Grimm 

 merrily galloping home. His memory for places and 

 people is described as extraordinary, and on one 

 certain clay, and that only, would he take his mistress 

 in turn to each shop she was in the habit of visiting. 

 He learnt to open any kind of door, and would turn 

 handles and keys, also lift latches, so that unless care 

 was taken to lock him into his stable from the outside, 

 he was certain to walk out again when the coast was 

 clear. Having a large stable-yard in which he walked 

 about in perfect freedom, his amusement was to open 

 the door of the scullery, and steal the greens the cook 

 was washing for dinner. She being quite deaf, was 

 unconscious of his presence until she felt his warm 

 nose on her shoulder, and saw her cabbage whisked 

 off. He hated solitude, and was always happy when 

 the dogs and their puppies were occupying the stall 

 next to him. Grimm never accidentally injured the 

 smallest puppy. The cat kept her kittens in his 

 manger, and the proceedings of the family gave him 

 much interest. This affectionate disposition was 

 further exemplified in several ways. He expected his 

 mistress to come and see him often, and once when 

 she had been prevented by illness, and had not seen 

 him for a fortnight, he determined upon reversing the 

 order of things, and went to see her, walking through 

 the hall to the drawing-room door, which he opened 

 as usual ; and great was her astonishment to see him 

 triumphantly nodding his head, as if relieved to find 

 she had not entirely disappeared. In 1862 Grimm 

 met with a serious accident, one of his fore-legs was 

 injured, and he ever afterwards lifted it up for inspec- 

 tion when his mistress appeared, and thus learnt to 

 shake hands. On his recovery a pony was bought to 

 drive with him, and he was placed in double harness. 

 He was devoted to his companion, and gnawed a 

 hole at once in the partition between the stalls to 

 improve the means of communication. Various other 

 anecdotes might be told of this remarkable and 

 intelligent pony, but he soon became unfit after this 

 period for work, and was received into the pastures 

 of the Agricultural College, Cirencester, where 

 he obtained a home and every comfort until death 

 terminated his eventful career. — E. Edwards. 



