CANADA PORCUPINE 71 



be a minimum of mentality, — the thing the data assumes to 

 measure. 



Kinnaman's (26) male monkey using this same apparatus 

 made his first errorless trip on the 36th trial, and did not make 

 10 errorless trips in succession until the 113th. Porcupine 

 No. 6 (male) reached his first success on the 30th trip and per- 

 fection in the 48th. Porter's (32) sparrow in a maze of this 

 pattern made the first errorless trip on the 23rd but never at- 

 tained the perfection of 10 successive errorless trips. Kinna- 

 man's female monkey attained the first success on the 13th and 

 perfection on the 66th. The female monkey was thus earlier 

 than No. 6 in reaching the first success but not so ready in 

 fixing the habit as was the porcupine. The nearest approach 

 to the first success of the female monkey which has been ob- 

 served was with porcupine No. 4, which made only one error 

 on the 13th trip and went without error on the 19th and 27th 

 trials. The error on the i3t'h was a very short excursion down 

 into blind alley i , a negligible error but for scientific accuracy. 

 No. 6 was surpassed by the female monkey and the sparrow on 

 first success but he surpassed them all in gaining the arbitrary 

 standard of perfection. 



Porcupine No. 3 also had a long and varied experience in 

 the maze. His rate of learning is shown in the first part of 

 curves A and B, plate IV. His first errorless trip was on the 

 83rd trial and his second and last was the 91st. His constant 

 error was in blind alley 7. He missed 7 only 14 times in 125 

 experiences with the maze. It ceased to be an error with him 

 as he entered 7 when he was regular and missed it only when 

 he was confused. It was a means of getting past the point /. 

 He was accustomed to go into 7 the distance of about twice his 

 length and pivot back on his hind feet, always turning toward 

 the center and always in the same way. It was such a regular 

 part of the trip that one might be disposed to call it an error 

 when he missed going into 7. His "error" was turned to success 

 in the usual habit so that the principle of "trial and success" 

 became as evident as it had been in the puzzle-box tests. Reck- 

 oned upon this basis, No. 3 reached his first success on the 31st 

 trial and perfection on the 41st, even excelling the progress 

 of No. 6 but this particular perfection includes regularly a part 

 of blind alley 7 and is thus not entirely comparable. It only 



