Cole, Intelligence of Raccoons. 219 



sufficient fullness, I think, to verify the deductions made from 

 them. 



A hght vertical line following a figure indicates the termination 

 of one-half day's experiments, a heavy line indicates the termina- 

 tion of a day's experiments. Unoccupied spaces preceding figures 

 indicate the number of times a raccoon %vas put through the act of 

 operating a fastening, for example, No. 4 v^as put through Box 5 

 four times the first half day. The records shov^ that putting 

 through is not a great obstacle to the raccoon's learning as it seems 

 to be in the case of cats. The times w^ere originally taken in sec- 

 onds and fifths, but in this table the nearest whole number of sec- 

 onds is given. For example. No. 2's first two records in Box i 

 were 45.6 and 41.8 instead of 46 and 42 seconds. 



It we take the average of the times required for all first and 

 second trials with single fastenings lor the raccoons not put through 

 the act, we find that they stand approximately in the ratio of 3 to 

 2 (Boxes I, 2, 3, 4). Kinnaman's results show that the male 

 monkey's first and second trials in the "Button," "Vert. Hook," 

 "Bolt," and "String and Nail" boxes (I omit the T-Latch Box, 

 as its first time is unusually long), when averaged are approxi- 

 mately in the ratio 2 to i (strictly 156 : 74). After having been 

 trained in seventeen boxes the monkey reduced the average time 

 of second trials to one-fourth that of first trials. 



Among Thorndike's records for cats there are many failures 

 on second trials, and he insists on the extreme gradualness of the 

 formation ot associations in the animals. In rapidity of form- 

 ing associations with single fastenings the raccoons, therefore, 

 stand next to the monkeys. Had we records for four monkeys 

 instead of one, the ratios would probably be still more nearly the 

 same. 



The table shows that often a raccoon may operate a fastening 

 quickly two or three times, after which there follow immediately 

 longer times. The case seems to be like that of a man who may 

 find a house in the city once by fortunate accident, but only after 

 he has had to search for it does he knoiu where it is in relation to 

 Its surroundings. 



The time records for the raccoons show greater and more nu- 

 merous variations than those for cats, or even those for monkeys. 

 Perhaps this is due to the fact that the cats were utterly hungry 

 and the rhesus monkeys did not exhibit play trials. 



