SECT. XVI. 1 1. i. OF INSTINCT. 123 



thefe animals, which are efteemed fo unclean have alfo learned 

 never to befoul their dens, where they have liberty, with their 

 own excrement ; an art, which cows and horfcs, \vhich have 

 open hovels to run into, have never acquired. I have obierved 

 great fagacity in fwine ; but the fhort lives we allou- them, and 

 their general confinement, prevents their improvement, which 

 might probably be otherwife greater than that of dogs. 



Inftances of the fagacity and knowledge of animals are very 

 numerous to every obferver, and their docility in learning vari- 

 ous arts from mankind, evinces that they may learn (invliar arts 

 from their own fpecies, and thus be pofiefled of much acquired 

 and traditional knowledge 



A dog whofe natural prey is fheep, is taught by mankind, not 

 only to leave them unmolefted, but to guard them ; and to hunt, 

 to fet, or to deftroy other kinds of animals, as birds, or vermin ; 

 and in fome countries to catch fifh, in others to find truffles, 

 and to praclife a great variety of tricks ; is it more furprifing 

 that the crows (hould teach each other, that the hawk can catch 

 Jefs birds, by the fuperiour fwiftnefs of his wing, and if two oF 

 them follow him, till he fucceeds in his defign, that they can 

 by force (hare a part of the capture ? this I have formerly ob- 

 ferved with attention and adonifhment. 



There is one kind of pelican mentioned by Mr. OFoeck, one 

 of Linnaeus's travelling pupils (the pelican us aquilus), whole 

 food is fi(h ; and which it takes from other birds, becaufe it is 

 not formed to catch them itfelf; hence it is called by the Eng- 

 li(h a Man-of-war-bird, Voyage to China, p. 88. There are 

 many other interefting anecdotes of the pelican and cormorant, 

 collected from authors of the bed authority, in a well- managed 

 Natural Hiftory for Children, publKhed by Mr. Galton. John- 

 fon. London. 



And the following narration from the very accurate Monf. 

 A dan fon, in his voyage to Senegal, may gain credit with the read- 

 er : as his employment in this country was folely to make ob- 

 fervations in natural hiftory. On the river Niger, in his road to 

 the ifland Oriel, he fa w a great number of pelicans, or wide throats. 

 " They moved with great (late like fwans upon the water, and 

 are the largeft bird next to the oftrich ; the bill of the one I kill- 

 ed was upwards of a foot and a half long, and the bag fattened 

 underneath it held two and twenty pints of water. They fwim 

 in flocks, and form a lar^ ei*cl, which they contract afterwards, 

 driving the fifti befo|e*them with their legs ; when they fee the 

 fim in fufficient number confined in this fpace, they plunge 

 their bill wide opeif into the watefc and (hut it again vith great 



j^N* qulcknefs, 



%v 



