Cole, Intelligence of Raccoons. 213 



bill of fare. From August 30 to the present time the animals have 

 been fully fed and given fresh water once each day. They had 

 to work hard for their food and it is possible that their growth may 

 have been retarded slightly, but I think that this was not the case, 

 for a table of their weights during the period shows a fair increase 

 with age. The year-old raccoons apparently are not quite full 

 grown. The animals have been kept in a room 14 by 10 feet, in 

 which they could climb about on several rolls of poultry wire 

 which were hung on the walls. They had there a nest of hay. 

 Two windows, in which they frequently sat, were open in summer. 

 They could climb about, and they were frequently let out to follow 

 me over an open field, climb nearby trees, or play about the house. 

 Sitice their eighth week they had never experienced any other environ- 

 ment. No one of the four ever showed a tendency to pace up and 

 down in the windows barred ( ?) with poultry wire. Raccoon No. 

 6, however, did this by the hour, and if chained by the neck he 

 would continue to pace to and fro at the end of his tether. This is 

 often observed in captive raccoons. That no restlessness ever 

 appeared in the four would seem to be evidence of their general 

 contentment and of nearly normal conditions in their unusual 

 environment. 



The animals worked well and, although they possibly might have 

 formed certain associations more rapidly under the stimulus ot 

 what Thorndike calls "utter hunger," I believe that my results 

 indicate approximately their normal rate of learning. The cases 

 of slow work, due to approaching satiety, were noted and valued 

 accordingly. Readers of the tables will note that the loss of 

 time due to fatigue or satiety is small in many cases, for the ani- 

 mals often work merely for the sake of working, or, more probably, 

 playing. Too great hunger results in much eagerness to secure 

 food and this seems invariably to prolong the time of escape from 

 the experiment box. This is to be observed in the case of the 

 first trial each day for each animal. 



Description of Fastenings. — In the following descriptions the 

 dimensions of the boxes are given in inches; length, breadth and 

 height being stated in order. The doors varied much in size and 

 in their position in the front of the box. Some were high in the 

 front, others low; some were in the middle from right to left, others 

 at one side. Since none of these variations delayed the animal's 

 attack on the fastenings, I soon ceased attempting to construct 



