DO ANIMALS THINK AND REFLECT? 



I read of a beaver that cut down a tree which 

 was held in such a way that it did not fall, but sim 

 ply dropped down the height of the stump. The 

 beaver cut it off again; again it dropped and re 

 fused to fall ; he cut it off a third and a fourth time : 

 still the tree stood. Then he gave it up. Now, so 

 far as I can see, the only independent intelligence 

 the animal showed was when it ceased to cut off the 

 tree. Had it been a complete automaton, it would 

 have gone on cutting would it not ? till it made 

 stove-wood of the whole tree. It was confronted 

 by a new problem, and after a while it took the 

 hint. Of course it did not understand what was the 

 matter, as you and I would have, but it evidently 

 concluded that something was wrong. Was this of 

 itself an act of intelligence ? Though it may be that 

 its ceasing to cut off the tree was simply the result 

 of discouragement, and involved no mental con 

 clusion at all. It is a new problem, a new condition, 

 that tests an animal s intelligence. How long it 

 takes a caged bird or beast to learn that it cannot 

 escape ! What a man would see at a glance it takes 

 weeks or months to pound into the captive bird, or 

 squirrel, or coon. When the prisoner ceases to strug 

 gle, it is probably not because it has at last come to 

 understand the situation, but because it is discour 

 aged. It is checked, but not enlightened. 



Even so careful an observer as Gilbert White 

 credits the swallow with an act of judgment to 

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