ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE, AND HOW TO STUDY IT 7 



single case. A collie of mine is very shy, so much so that 

 an observer recently remarked that he seemed to act as if 

 he were afraid of being beaten. As a matter of fact that 

 dog has always been treated with the greatest consider- 

 ation in view of his infirmity. He has improved con- 

 siderably, and the causes of this improvement in his 

 case I well understand. For the primary cause of the 

 shyness in this case one must make a study of his 

 ancestors. 



Not only is it necessary in order to understand the 

 individual dog to. begin with him at his birth and to 

 follow his history throughout, but such a course is 

 essential for the comprehension of the nature of dogs in 

 general, and, personally, I am deeply convinced of the 

 importance of such investigations, after having been 

 engaged in them for some years. 



When such studies are carried out on representatives 

 of different groups of animals, and on different breeds 

 or individuals, one's conceptions of the true nature of 

 animal intelligence or, to use a more comprehensive 

 term, the psychic life of animals is vastly widened and 

 altogether more correct in every respect. 



In studying together, for example, a litter of puppies 

 and a litter of kittens, the lines of development are 

 found to be almost parallel for a time, then to diverge 

 more and more. The same applies to the individuals 

 of the litter, even though the circumstances under 

 which they are reared are the same. 



By this method of comparative study, questions as to 

 what is common to the race and to different races 

 closely allied, the relative strength of the individuality 

 of members of the same litter or family, the influence 

 of the surroundings, including in this all that we mean 

 by education, and a whole host of other problems arise, 

 and are to some extent solved. By varying the con- 

 ditions under which the different members of a litter 



