591.51 38o 



V. 



Cunning in Animals. 



''PHE nature of this subject requires an introductory statement of the 

 -*■ writer's interpretation of the terms " Instinctive Activities " 

 and " Intelligent Activities." This is the more necessary in view 

 of the wide difference which exists in the definitions of the 

 many distingushed writers who have treated on the cause and effect 

 of animal and human action.^ I incline to interpret the term 

 " Instinctive Activities," broadly, as those accomplished by congenital 

 psychological impulse, without the aid of experience ; and my 

 definition of " Intelligent Activities " I take in toto from Lloyd 

 Morgan's scheme of terminology, viz., " those due to individual control 

 or guidance in the light of experience through association." 



A full definition of " Instinctive Activities " should perhaps 

 contain a reference to that possibility of variation or variableness 

 which is necessary in view of evolution. My attempt to estimate 

 the nature of cunning, however, has led me to catalogue it as 

 inseparably connected with intelligence, and on this account the 

 consideration of such activities as I term " instinctive " may be set 

 aside. Dr. Reid, in his recently published work, " The Present 

 Evolution of Man," forms an entirely different conception of instinct. 

 He speaks of a " conscious adaptation," and of instinctive impulses 

 as "ways of thinking and acting." Such attributes I would include 

 in my understanding of the term " Intelligent Activities," and as 

 directly connected with the particular subject of this paper. 



Probably no more highly specialised example of cunning could be 

 found among lower animals than in the resource of a hunted fox. In 

 man we have a degree of cunning which, as exemplified in the wiles of 

 a Red Indian or the ingenuity of the clever criminal, surpasses that of 

 any lower animal. But the intelligence even of savage man, coupled 

 with his reasoning intellect, gives him an advantage. Yet the 

 marvellously keen sense action of the red man probably does not exceed 

 the power of sense in the fox ; certainly the sense of smell in the fox 

 and in all allied animals completely transcends that in man. In all 

 intelligent actions, therefore, which require the use of some special 

 sense, these differences of primary capability must be kept in mind. 



1 " Some Definitions of Instinct," by Lloyd Morgan, Natural Science, vol. vi.,. 

 p. 321, May, 1895. 



