46 THE DESCENT OF MAN. [Part L 



lost much of their contents ; afterward they gently hit 

 one end 'against some hard body, and picked off the bits 

 of shell with their fingers. After cutting themselves only 

 once with any sharp tool, they would not touch it again, 

 or would handle it with the greatest care. Lumps of 

 sugar were often given them wrapped up in paper ; and 

 Rengger sometimes put a live wasp in the paper, so that 

 in hastily unfolding it they got stung ; after this had once 

 happened, they always first held the packet to their ears 

 to detect any movement within. Any one who is not con- 

 vinced by such facts as these, and by what he may observe 

 with his own dogs, that animals can reason, would not be 

 convinced by any thing that I could add. Nevertheless 

 I will give one case with respect to dogs, as it rests on 

 two distinct observers, and can hardly depend on the 

 modification of any instinct. 



Mr. Colquhoun 16 winged two wild-ducks, which fell on 

 the opposite side of a stream ; his retriever tried to bring 

 over both at once, but could not succeed ; she then, though 

 never before known to ruffle a feather, deliberately killed 

 one, brought over the other, and returned for the dead 

 bird. Colonel Hutchinson relates that two partridges 

 were shot at once, one being killed, the other wounded ; 

 the latter ran away, and was caught by the retriever, who 

 on her return came across the dead bird ; " she stopped, 

 evidently greatly puzzled, and after one or two trials, 

 finding she could not take it up without permitting the 

 escape of the winged bird, she considered a moment, then 

 deliberately murdered it by giving it a severe crunch, and 

 afterward brought away both together. This was the 

 only known instance of her ever having wilfully injured 

 any game." Here we have reason, though not quite per- 

 fect, for the retriever might have brought the wounded 



16 ' The Moor and the Loch,' p. 45. Colonel Hutchinson on ' Dog 

 Breaking,' 1850, p. 46. 



