FACTORS IN ANIMAL LIFE 



If they have not, they probably will. Eating is the 

 one thing that engrosses the attention of all crea 

 tures, and the procuring of food has been a great 

 means of education to all. 



I notice that certain of the wood-folk mice and 

 squirrels and birds eat mushrooms. If I would 

 eat them, I must learn how to distinguish the edible 

 from the poisonous ones. I have no special sense to 

 guide me in the matter, as doubtless the squirrels 

 have. Their instinct is sure where my reason fails. 

 It would be very interesting to know if they ever 

 make a mistake in this matter. Domestic animals 

 sometimes make mistakes as to their food because 

 their instinct has been tampered with and is by 

 no means as sure as that of the wild creatures. It 

 is said that sheep will occasionally eat laurel and 

 St. John s-wort, which are poisonous to them. In the 

 far West I was told that the horses sometimes eat a 

 weed called the loco-weed that makes them crazy. 

 I have since learned that the buffaloes and cattle with 

 a strain of the buffalo blood never eat this weed. 



The imitation among the lower animals to which 

 I have referred is in no sense akin to teaching. The 

 boy does not learn arithmetic by imitation. To teach 

 is to bring one mind to act upon another mind ; it is 

 the result of a conscious effort on the part of both 

 teacher and pupil. The child, says Darwin, has an 

 instinctive tendency to speak, but not to brew, or 

 bake, or write. The child comes to speak by imita- 

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