l.-.S M. F. WASHBURN AM) EDWINA ABBOTT 



Her trick of getting into the box and waiting until we were 

 ready to test her proved so saving of our time that we dropped 

 the small rabbits into the same box for safe keeping between 

 experiments with them. After two days of this Abednego formed 

 the habit of jumping in himself, and the other young ones 

 acquired it shortly after. This behavior is interesting when 

 one recalls that Thorndike's cats which had been picked up and 

 dropped into a box never formed the habit of going in them- 

 selves 4 : precisely such a connection between being dropped in 

 and jumping in was readily formed by our young rabbits. They 

 would display amusing eagerness for the next test to begin after 

 having jumped into the box, standing on their hind legs and peer- 

 ing over its sides. 



It is of course probable that the peculiarities of instinctive 

 behavior which we have described were influenced in a greater 

 or less degree by the domestication of the animals. 



III. RESULTS 

 The plan of our experiments, so far as the arrangement of 

 series is concerned, underwent various modifications in its prog- 

 ress, and therefore will not make upon the reader the impression 

 of ideal order and system. If we could have foreseen these 

 modifications from the outset, there would have been the less 

 need of making the research at all. We shall treat separately 

 the results obtained from each rabbit. 



A. Experiments with Light Nose {male) 



Series i. Red and Hering grey number 15. Red opens. All 

 of the experiments of this series were performed in the yard 

 attached to the hutch, Light Nose and Dark Nose being tested 

 alternately, as described on page 150. Four tests were made on 

 each day. The rabbits took very kindly to opening the doors, 

 needing only to be shown once or twice that there was food in 

 the box. The total number of experiments was 71. The total 

 percentage of correct choices made by Light Nose was 63. Calcu- 

 lated at intervals of three days, that is, for every twelve tests, 

 his percentages were 77, 64, 43, 84, 50, 43. It will be seen that 

 his work was irregular, apparently because of playfulness. The 

 series lasted from November 29 to December 16, 1910. 



4 Thorndike, E. L. Animal Intelligence. New York. 1911. l'p. 101-2. 



