234 THE INTELLIGENCE OF MAMMALS 



It seems a marvelous act for a buffalo cow to recognize 

 its young in a large herd ; for a seal to pick out its young 

 among thousands ; or for a gull to find its young among 

 ten thousand, but this is instinct, the sense of smell aiding 

 the animals. The sea elephant that will select its young 

 from thousands of others will watch sailors knocking its 

 companions on the head and skinning them, with the great- 

 est indifference, not having the intelligence even to move, 

 or to realize that it is in danger. 



In chasing the tree-girdling jack rabbits on horseback in 

 California I have noticed that in nine cases out of ten the 

 hare when hard pressed would turn up grade and easily 

 wear out my heavy horse. This possibly was reason to a 

 limited extent. A friend related the following, illustrat- 

 ing the intelHgence of foxes in the Yellowstone Park. A 

 badger lived under my friend's house and on moonlight 

 nights he would come out and go to the garbage pile and 

 eat. Sometimes half a dozen foxes would also come, but 

 when the badger appeared they fell back. Then one of the 

 foxes would rush at the badger and annoy it in every pos- 

 sible way until the badger gave chase, whereupon the other 

 foxes would dash in and tear away some of the food, to be 

 driven off later by the badger. Another fox would now at- 

 tack the badger, and this clever game was kept up by the 

 foxes until all had dined. In this case the stupid badger 

 was seemingly a victim to the more intelligent foxes. 



A similar instance was observed at the turkey ranch 

 on Santa Catalina Island. A brood of young turkeys was 

 followed by several ravens. One raven walked boldly up 

 and commenced to hop up and down, attracting the atten- 

 tion of the mother, and as she rushed at the raven another 



