o!6 THE MENTAL CAPACITIES AND 



as he could reach, he placed the bill of the duck in a crevice in the 

 wall; then springing upon the top, he reached down, and pulling 

 up the duck dropped it upon the other side, leaped down, and, pick- 

 ing it up, went on his way." 



The Rev. G. Henslow writes thus : 



" The Arctic fox too wary to be shot like the first who took a 

 bait tied to a string, which was attached to the trigger of a gun 

 would dive under the snow and so pull the bait down below the 

 line of fire." Dr. John Ray adds that he has known several cases 

 in which, under such conditions, instead of digging and jumping 

 into a trench in the snow to avoid the shot, an Arctic fox has " cut 

 the line attaching the bait to the trigger of the gun before taking 

 the bait." 



The large and highly convoluted brains of the Porpoise 

 and of the Dolphin, as well as those of many marine Car- 

 nivores, have long been deemed remarkable peculiarities 

 in these animals ; and doubts have been expressed whether 

 their Mental Faculties are in any way equal to what might 

 have been expected if we look merely to the size and de- 

 velopment of their Cerebral Hemispheres. Some remarks 

 have already been made on this subject, with the view 

 of showing that the extraordinary activity and varied 

 muscular movements of these creatures may have much 

 to do with the great size even of the Cerebral Hemispheres, 

 as it has unquestionably to do with the great develop- 

 ment of the Cerebellum.* Their voracity is enormous ; 

 and this, together with the rapidity and variety of their 

 movements, must entail a corresponding activity of all 

 their Sensorial Organs. The diversity of their daily ex- 

 periences also is probably greatly increased by the fact that 

 they are gregarious animals, accustomed to hunt their prey 

 and live together in small troops. It is quite possible, 

 therefore, that the sagacity and emotional nature of these 

 * See p. 278. 



