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 Eed 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 Ked 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. 



