74 ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE 
commodate itself to new conditions and cope with 
emergencies. 
To what, then, is the superior intelligence of this 
species due? In my opinion, partly to the fact that he 
has benefited by proximity to civilisation. While the 
Black Squirrel (Sciurus niger) seeks the depths of the 
forest, the Red Squirrel keeps near, by preference, to 
the abodes of man. Among rodents, none perhaps 
excels the domestic rat in general intelligence, a fact to 
be ascribed to this same human contact. Indeed, there 
is, perhaps, no group of animals that has long been 
near man that has not been more or less elevated in 
the scale of intelligence as a consequence, which, in 
turn, shows that the intellect of brutes cannot be wholly 
different from that of man. The applicability of this 
explanation to the squirrels is not so obvious as in the 
case of some other animals. The superior intelligence 
of the Red Squirrel is doubtless the resultant of a 
complex of factors which we can but imperfectly unravel, 
but from what I have observed as the result of actual 
experiment, I am forced to conclude that this creature 
can readily adapt itself so as to overcome the obstacles 
and avail of the advantages of man’s civilisation; and 
I see no reason why, as a consequence of ages of inheri- 
tance of such naturally increasing capacity of adapta- 
tion or its results, the general intelligence of the species 
might not be raised. Such, however, probably con- 
stitutes but one element of a complete explanation. 
