FACULTIES OF TIIK MIND. 



templation of these, would be limited to resemblance and 

 succession. But as we begin to act upon the objects around 

 us, and produce in them various changes, we acquire a 

 knowledge of our own Power. When we see changes pro- 

 duced independent of us, we consider it as the display of 

 some other power. These changes, and the efforts which 

 have preceded them, excite our ideas of cause and effect, 

 means and ends. 



That the lower animals possess some notion of power and of 

 cause and effect, may be inferred from various actions which 

 they perform. Thus, for example, we have seen the hood- 

 ed crow (Corvus comix,} in Zetland, when feeding on the 

 testaceous mollusca, able to break some of the tenderer kinds 

 by means of its bill, aided, in some cases, by beating them 

 against a stone ; but as some of the larger shells, such as the 

 buckie, (Buccinum undatum,) and the wilk, cannot be bro- 

 ken by such means, it employs another method, by which, 

 in consequence of applying foreign power, it accomplishes its 

 object. Seizing the shell with its claws, it mounts up into 

 the air, and then loosing its hold, causes the shell to fall 

 among stones, (in preference to the sand, the water, or the 

 soil on the ground,) that it may be broken and give easier 

 access to the contained animal. Should the first attempt 

 fail, a second or a third are tried, with this difference, that 

 the crow rises higher in the air in order to increase the 

 power of the fall, and more effectually remove the barrier 

 to the contained morsel. On such occasions, we have seen 

 a stronger bird remain an apparently inattentive spectator 

 of the process of breaking die shell, but coming to the spot 

 with astonishing keenness, when the efforts of its neighbour 

 had been successful, in order to share in the spoil *. Ani- 



* Pennant Brit, /on], iv. p. I ! 1. mentions similar nprnUionv performed 

 h\ rn>\vs on innssi-ls. 



