Sect. XVI. i i. i. OF INSTINCT. 1 23 



thefe animals, which are efteemed fo unclean, have alio learned 

 never to befoul their dens, where they have liberty, with their 

 own excrement ; an art, which cows and horfes, which have 

 open hovels to run into, have never acquired. I have obferved 

 great fagacity in fwine ; but the fhort lives we allow them, and 

 their general confinement, prevents their improvement, which 

 might probably be other wife greater than that of dogs. 



Inftances of the fagacity and knowledge of animals are very 

 numerous to every obferver, and their docility in learning vari- 

 ous arts from mankind, evinces that they may learn fimilar arts 

 from their own fpecies, and thus be poftefTed of much acquired 

 and traditional knowledge. 



A dog whofe natural prey is fheep, is taught by mankind, not 

 only to leave them unmolefted, but to guard them *, and to hunt, 

 to let, or to deflroy other kinds of animals, as birds, or vermin 5 

 and in fome countries to catch fifh, in others to find truffles, 

 and to practife a great variety of tricks ; is it more furprifmg 

 that the crows fhould teach each other, that the hawk can catch 

 lefs birds, by the fuperior fwiftnefs of his wing, and if two of 

 them follow him, till he fucceeds in his defign, that they can 

 by force (hare a part of the capture ? This I have formerly ob- 

 ferved with attention and aftonifhment. 



There is one kind of pelican mentioned by Mr. Ofbeck, one 

 of Linnseus's^ravelling pupils (the pelicanus aquilus), whofe 

 food is fifh *, and which it takes from other birds, becaufe it is 

 not formed to catch them itfelf ; hence it is called * the Eng- 

 lifh a Man-of-war-bird, Voyage to China, p. 88. There are 

 many other interefting anecdotes of the pelican and cormorant, 

 collected from authors of the beft authority, in a well-managed 

 Natural Hiftory for Children, publifhed by Mr. Galton. John- 

 fon. London. 



And the following narration from the very accurate Monf. 

 Adanfon,in his voyage to Senegal, may gain credit with the read- 

 er : as his employment in this country was folely to make ob- 

 fervations in natural hiftory. On the river Niger, in his road to 

 the iflandGriel,he faw agreat numberof pelicans, or wide throats. 

 u They moved with great ftate like fwans upon the water, and 

 are the largeft bird next to the oftrich ; the bill of the one I kill- 

 ed was upwards of a foot and half long, and the bag fattened 

 underneath it held two and twenty pints of water. They fwim 

 in flocks, and form a large circle, which they contract afterwards, 

 driving the fifh before them with their legs : when they fee the 

 fifh in fufficient number confined in this fpace, they plunge 

 their bill wide open into the water, and Jhut it again with great 



quicknefs. 



