INSTINCT AND MEMORY OF THE HORSE 281 



The tricks of horses to procure little luxuries and 

 indulgences are very clever. 



' An orchard had been repeatedly stripped of its 

 best and ripest fruit, and the marauders had laid 

 their plans so cunningly that the strictest vigilance 

 could not detect them. At last the depredators were 

 discovered to be a mare and her colt which were 

 turned out to graze among the trees. The mare was 

 seen to go up to one of the apple-trees, and to throw 

 herself against the trunk so violently that a shower 

 of ripe apples came tumbling down. She and her 

 offspring then ate the fallen apples, and the same 

 process was repeated at another tree. Another mare 

 had discovered the secret of the water-butt, and, 

 whenever she was thirsty, was accustomed to go to 

 the butt, turn the tap with her teeth, drink until her 

 thirst was satisfied, and then to close the tap again. 

 I have heard of two animals which performed this 

 feat ; but one of them was not clever enough to turn 

 the tap back again, and used to let all the water run 

 to waste.' ^ 



^ Eev. J. G. Wocd— Illustrated Natural History. 



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