J 8 The Descent of Man. Part I. 



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. 26 



The following cases relate to dogs. Mr. Colquhoun 27 winged 

 two wild-ducks, which fell on the further 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. Col. 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 afterwards 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 perfect, for the retriever might have brought 

 the wounded bird first and then returned for the dead one, as in 

 the case of the two wild-ducks. I give the above cases, as 

 resting on the evidence of two independent witnesses, and 

 because in both instances the retrievers, after deliberation, 

 broke through a habit which is inherited by them (that of not 

 killing the game retrieved), and because they shew how strong 

 their reasoning faculty must have been to overcome a fixed 

 habit. 



I will conclude by quoting a remark by the illustrious 

 Humboldt. 28 " The muleteers in S. America say, ' I will not give 

 " ' you the mule whose step is easiest, but la mas rational, — the 

 "'one that reasons best;'" and as he adds, "this popular expres- 

 " sion, dictated by long experience, combats the system of 

 " animated machines, better perhaps than all the arguments of 

 " speculative philosophy." Nevertheless some writers even yet 

 deny that the higher animals possess a trace of reason ; and they 

 endeavour to explain away, by what appears to be mere 

 verbiage, 29 all such facts as those above given. 



2S Mr. Belt, in his most interest- p. 45. Col. Hutchinson on 'Dog 



ing work, ' The Naturalist in Ni- Breaking,' 1850, p. 46. 

 caragua,' 1874 (p. 119), likewise 28 'Personal Narrative,' Eng. 



describes various actions of a tamed translat., vol. iii. p. 106. 

 Cebus, which, I think, clearly shew 2y I am glad to rind that so acute 



that this animal possessed some a reasoner as Mr. Leslie Stephen 



reasoning power. (' Darwinism and Divinity, Essavs 



27 'The Moor and the Loch,' on Free-thinking,' 1873, p. 80), in 



