36 ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE 



to explain them, except by the exercise of reasoning 

 power or some mental process closely analogous. But 

 it must appear superfluous to contend any longer for 

 the possession of such a faculty in the higher groups of 

 animals at least. One of our members, Mr Metcalf, 

 himself the owner of a large number of dogs, referred to 

 the fact that one of them had a great dislike of beggars, 

 tramps, and such like persons. From what I have read 

 of similar and even more marked conduct, from much 

 that I have seen, and especially in a young dog I now 

 possess, I am almost persuaded that in certain dogs 

 such hostility is inborn, and, in certain cases, hereditary. 

 Mr Metcalf thought that the detention, without injury, 

 of would-be thieves, as in a case he reported, was 

 peculiar to the mastiff. 



In February 1886, Mr John Miller read a paper on 

 the dog, with special reference to the Scotch Collie, 

 which brought out some interesting remarks from a 

 member who had witnessed the training and perform- 

 ances of these animals in Scotland. Everything went 

 to show that the collie dog is a specialist of marked 

 aptitudes, the result of ages of training and selected 

 breeding, though his general intelligence is also high. 



At the following meeting Mr Ferron reported on the 

 intelligence of a certain bitch he had observed. The 

 animal imitated a cat in carrying kittens and in several 

 other particulars ; she was also remarkable in retentive- 

 ness of memory, and in other respects. This case was 

 all the more valuable a study, inasmuch as the animal 

 had received no training whatever. 



The President instanced the case of a brindle bull- 

 dog that had, on several occasions, found his way home, 

 a distance of twenty-four miles, and in so brief a time 

 as to indicate that he must have taken short cuts. 

 Such cases suggest one of the most interesting and 

 puzzling enquiries in the whole realm of Comparative 



