A BEAVER S REASON 



To observe the actions of the lower animals with 

 out reading our own thoughts into them is not an easy 

 matter. Mr. Beebe thinks that when in early 

 spring the peacock, in the Zoological Park, timidly 

 erects its plumes before an unappreciative crow, it 

 is merely practicing the art of showing off its gay 

 plumes in anticipation of the time when it shall 

 compete with its rivals before the females ; in other 

 words, that it is rehearsing its part. But I should 

 say that the peacock struts before the crow or be 

 fore spectators because it can t help it. The sexual 

 instinct begins to flame up and master it. The fowl 

 can no more control it than it can control its appetite 

 for food. To practice beforehand is human. Ani 

 mal practice takes the form of spontaneous play. 

 The mock battles of two dogs or of other animals 

 are not conscious practice on their part, but are play 

 pure and simple, the same as human games, though 

 their value as training is obvious enough. 



Animals do not have general ideas; they receive 

 impressions through their various senses, to which 

 they respond. I recently read in manuscript a very 

 clear and concise paper on the subject of animal 

 thinking compared with that of man, in which the 

 writer says: &quot;There is a rudimentary abstraction 

 before language. All the higher animals have gen 

 eral ideas of * good-for-eating and not-good-f cr 

 eating, quite apart from any particular objects of 

 which either of these qualities happens to be char- 

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