460 JOHN B. WATSON AND K. S. LASHLEY 



evidence advanced is quite inadequate to prove that the ant's 

 method of orientation is in any way different from that of the 

 rat. In the author's various papers, dealing with ants, cases 

 are given in which each of the sensory factors, possibly active 

 in orientation, smell, vision, touch, kinaesthesia, magnetic sense, 

 etc., seem to have been eliminated singly, but no case of cor- 

 rect orientation is recorded in which vision and the muscle sense 

 were eliminated together; indeed the author does not consider 

 the possibility that two or more senses may contribute some- 

 what independently to the sense of direction. Until such pos- 

 sibilities have been tested thoroughly, it seems unnecessary to 

 invent a sense of absolute direction, "inconceivable," though 

 not necessarily "impossible." 



IMITATION 



Mammals. Warren (27) reports a case of delayed imitation 

 in the cat. One of two pets formed, through effoits of his own, 

 the habit of climbing into the author's lap, then to his shoulder, 

 and out over his outstretched arm to a piece of meat held on 

 a fork. The companion of this cat made no attempt for months 

 to perform this trick, although watching the trained animal feed 

 in this way daily. This second cat had often been coaxed to 

 make the effort. One day, however, after watching the trained 

 animal feed, he suddenly, of his own accord, sprang on the 

 author's lap, out over his arm and seized the piece of meat. 

 After this he became the sturdy rival of the cat which had 

 first learned the trick. 



Hunter (13) finds that the white rat can learn by being "put 

 through" an act. As a part of the daily routine of experiment 

 of the group of rats it was found necessary to deposit each 

 animal, after completing his quota of work, in a small box. 

 This was accomplished by lifting the animal up and dropping 

 him through a hole in the top of a box situated on the table 

 which held the living cage. The animal remained in this box 

 until all the members of the group had been woiked with, after 

 which the group as a whole was removed to the living cage and 

 there fed. On the two hundred and fourth day after experi- 

 mentation had begun the door of the living cage was left open 

 by accident. Two of the five rats climbed to the top of the 

 small box and dropped to the floor of their own accord and 



