62 ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE 



feet, but that he kept exceedingly quiet. The next day 

 he was very dull ill, as I thought and I was inclined 

 to the belief, from the way he moved, that possibly one 

 side was partially paralysed ; but finding that he had 

 eaten a good deal of what had been given him (oats), I 

 began to be suspicious. Notwithstanding this apparent 

 injury, that very day, when showing a friend the 

 animal, on lifting aside one of the slats a little, he 

 made such a rush for the opening that he all but 

 escaped. On the third day after his capture, having 

 left the sitting-room (usually occupied by two others 

 besides myself) in which he was kept for a period of 

 about two hours, I was told, on my return, by a maid- 

 servant and a boy employed about the house, that some 

 time previously the squirrel had escaped by the window, 

 and, descending the wall of the house, which was 

 " rough- cast," he had run off briskly along a neigh- 

 bouring fence, and disappeared at the root of a tree. 

 When asked if they saw any evidence of lameness, 

 they laughed at the idea, after his recent performances 

 before their eyes. For several days I observed a squirrel 

 running about, apparently quite well, in the quarter in 

 which my animal had escaped, and I feel satisfied that 

 it was the squirrel that I had recently had in confine- 

 ment, but, of course, of this I cannot be certain. 



I believe, now, that this was a case of feigning, for 

 if the injury had been so serious as the first symptoms 

 would imply, or if there had been real paralysis, it 

 could not have disappeared so suddenly. An animal, 

 even partially paralysed, could scarcely have escaped as 

 he did and show no signs of lameness. His apparent 

 insensibility at first may have been due to catalepsy or 

 slight stunning. But while there are elements of 

 doubt in this first case, there are none such in that 

 about to be described. 



