WHAT DO ANIMALS KNOW? 



regarded as reasonable beings. I should as soon 

 expect a fox or a wolf to make use of a trap to cap 

 ture its prey as to make use of poison in any way. 

 Why does not the fox take a stick and spring the 

 trap he is so afraid of? Simply because the act 

 would involve a mental process beyond him. He has 

 not yet learned to use even the simplest implement 

 to attain his end. Then he would probably be just as 

 afraid of the trap after it was sprung as before. He 

 in some way associates it with his arch-enemy, man. 



Such stories, too, as a chained fox or a coyote 

 getting possession of corn or other grain and bait 

 ing the chickens with it feigning sleep till the 

 chicken gets within reach, and then seizing it are 

 of the same class, incredible because transcending 

 the inherited knowledge of those animals. I can 

 believe that a fox might walk in a shallow creek to 

 elude the hound, because he may inherit this kind 

 of cunning, and in his own experience he may have 

 come to associate loss of scent with water. Animals 

 stalk their prey, or lie in wait for it, instinctively, not 

 from a process of calculation, as man does. If a fox 

 would bait poultry with corn, why should he not, in 

 his wild state, bait mice and squirrels with nuts and 

 seeds ? Has a cat ever been known to bait a rat with 

 a piece of cheese ? 



Animals seem to have a certain association of 

 ideas; one thing suggests another to them, as with 

 us. This fact is made use of by animal-trainers. I 

 141 



