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L. W. SACKETT 



serves to show how soon the animal developed a settled habit 

 by being introduced into the maze only twice each day during 

 the entire summer and fall. Some of the results by No. 3 are 

 reserved for discussion below. 



As to the method of the experimenters there is also con- 

 siderable variation. Kinnaman's (26) monkeys were put through 

 as many times as they would go each day. The same method 

 was used with porcupine No. 6. Nos. 3 and 4 were put through 

 twice daily while Porter's (22) sparrow was allowed to make 

 the trip only once a day. The methods employed by Small (37) 

 and Watson (44) with this pattern of maze are so different that 

 the results are hardly comparable. As results stand, where 

 work can be compared, the porcupines have solved the maze 

 problem more readily than any other animals except the female 

 monkey in the matter of first errorless trip and she did not 

 reach perfection as early as porcupine No. 6. 



When one studies the porcupine in its natural habitat one is 

 not surprised at this abihty. Kinnaman thought the maze was 

 adapted to the hfe of the monkeys, since they travel on Hmbs 

 from tree to tree and no doubt there is a similarity between the 

 problems. The branchings of the limbs present problems very 

 analogous to the runways and cul-de-sacs of the maze. Small 

 and Watson think the rats in creeping around through dark 

 places have a natural experience comparable to that of running 

 the maze. There is no objection to this. No one, however, can 

 follow the natural trails of the porcupine without feehng that 

 these animals thread a maze every time they creep out after 

 food. Their paths, particulariy in the fall and winter months, 

 are sometimes worn deep into the ground, winding for miles 

 through the underbrush, ferns, laurels, and shrubbery ; they go 

 around large rocks, over smaller ones, under logs and over stone 

 walls, creeping in and out with almost endless branchings, .cross 

 ings and shuntings. When the more formal problem of_ a 

 laboratory is interpreted in the light of this instinctive behavior 

 of the animal the superior abihty of the porcupine in maze 

 running may be explained upon a lower basis and m a more 

 natural fashion than is otherwise possible. The suggestion also 

 seems a propos even at the risk of repeating, that such tests 

 as the traversing of a labyrinth are not reliable tests of men- 

 tality and can in no sense serve as a basis for ranking animals 



