Chap. II.] MENTAL POAVERS. 43 



From one account which I have read, there is reason to 

 believe that puppies nursed by cats sometimes learn to 

 lick their feet and thus to clean their faces : it is at least 

 certain, as I hear from a perfectly trustworthy friend, that 

 some dogs behave in this manner. Birds imitate the 

 songs of their parents, and sometimes those of other 

 birds ; and parrots are notorious imitators of any sound 

 which they often hear. 



Hardly any faculty is more important for the intellec- 

 tual progress of man than the power of Attention. Ani- 

 mals clearly manifest this power, as when a cat watches 

 by a hole and prepares to spring on its prey. Wild animals 

 sometimes become so absorbed when thus engaged, that 

 they may be easily approached, Mr. Bartlett has given 

 me a curious proof how variable this faculty is in mon- 

 keys. A man who trains monkeys to act used to purchase 

 common kinds from the Zoological Society at the price of 

 five pounds for each ; but he offered to give double the 

 price, if he might keep three or four of them for a few 

 days, in order to select one. When asked how he could 

 possibly so soon learn whether a particular monkey would 

 turn out a good actor, he answered that it all depended 

 on their power of attention. If when he was talking and 

 explaining any thing to a monkey, its attention was easily 

 distracted, as by a fly on the wall or other trifling object, 

 the case was hopeless. If he tried by punishment to 

 make an inattentive monkey act, it turned sulky. On 

 the other hand, a monkey which carefully attended to him 

 could always be trained. 



It is almost superfluous to state that animals have ex- 

 cellent Memories for persons and places. A baboon at the 

 Cape of Good Hope, as I have been informed by Sir An- 

 drew Smith, recognized him with joy after an absence of 

 nine months. I had a dog who was savage and averse to 

 all strangers, and I purposely tried his memory after an 



