CANADA PORCUPINE 53 



encountered it? In other words, shall it be assumed that the 

 animal had no mental grasp of the situation except when that 

 situation was definitely intruding itself upon the senses? Is 

 there anything more than "present knowledge" as Judd uses 

 that term? It would be presumptuous, of course, to answer 

 this much debated question of the existence or non-existence 

 of free ideas in the animal mind. No better opportunity will 

 be found for discussing it, however, than in connection with 

 form study. Alorgan (29) grants that animals habitually form 

 mental constructs by immediate association analogous to, if 

 not resembling those in the human mind ; and also that animals 

 are accustomed to define these constructs definitely by exami- 

 nation. He also holds that "a sensation or a group of sensations 

 may suggest a series of reconstructed or a series of remembered 

 phenomena." If this were only demonstrated, one would feel 

 safe in saying that the porcupines possessed memory images of 

 the circle while they were looking for it. The same author 

 doubts the power of an animal to form "isolates" but admits 

 that they may have, for instance, "vague representations of 

 things good to eat in which the character of eatability is pre- 

 dominant." Thorn dike found no indication of ideas in his 

 cats, dogs and monkeys but Cole (10) gives results which seem 

 to imply ideas in the raccoon. Miss Washburn (40) leaves the 

 matter of "memory ideas" where she found it, lamenting the 

 "lack of more definite knowledge on the subject," (p. 273). 

 This problem implies more than is involved in the question of 

 the mental content of the porcupine while he is seeking the 

 circle. On the other hand, the phenomenon may be more anal- 

 ogous to the state in w^hich most people would find themselves 

 if they were required to react to a certain bell, sounded promis- 

 cuously among other bells. They would probably not hold an 

 image of the tone while waiting for it, but would respond no 

 less readily when that particular tone struck the ear. One 

 does not need to infer free ideas to explain this phenomenon of 

 "rejecting" and "choosing" the forms. This would seem to 

 be the most plausible interpretation of the mental content of 

 the porcupines during their reactions to the forms. 



Discrimination of Color and Brightness. — In testing the ability 

 of the porcupine to discriminate colors and brightnesses as a 

 means of finding the proper food-boxes, the standard blue and 



