ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE. 63 



we get practically nothing hut instincts and individual actjuuc- 

 ment through impulsive trial and error. Among the primates 

 we get also acquisition by imitation, one form of the increase of 

 mental equipment by tradition. The child may learn from the 

 parent quickly without the tiresome process of seeing for him- 

 self. The less active and less curious may share the progress 

 of their superiors. The brain whose impulses hitherto could 

 only be dislodged by specific sense-impressions may now have 

 any impulse set agoing by the sight of the movement to which 

 it corresponds. 



All this on the common supposition that the primates do 

 imitate, that a monkey in the place of these cats and dogs zvould 

 have pulled the string. My apology for leaving the matter in 

 this way without experiments of my own is that the monkey 

 which I procured for just this purpose failed in two months to 

 become tame enough to be thus experimented on. Accurate in- 

 formation about the nature and extent of imitation among the 

 primates should be the first aim of further work in comparative 

 psychology, and will be sought by the present writer as soon as 

 he can get subjects fit for experiments. 



In a questionnaire which was sent to fifteen animal-trainers, the following 

 questions were asked : 



1. " If one dog was in the habit of ' begging' to get food and another dog 

 saw him do it ten or twenty times, would the second dog then beg himself? " 



2. "In general is it easier for you to teach a cat or dog a trick if he has 

 seen another do it?" 



3. "In general do cats imitate each other? Do dogs? Do monkeys?" 



4. " Give reasons for your opinion, and please write all the reasons you 

 have." 



Five gentlemen (Messrs. R. C. Carlisle, C. L. Edwards, V. P. Wormwood. 

 H. S. Maguire and \V. E. Burke) courteously responded to my questionnaire. 

 All are trainers of acknowledged reputation. To these questions on imitation 

 four replied. 



To the first question we find the following answers: [a) "Most dogs 



would." {b) "Yes; he will very likely do it. He will try and imitate the other 



dog generally." (c) " If a young dog with the mother, it would be very apt to 



. . . With older dogs, it would depend very much upon circumstances." (*/) 



" He would not." 



To 2 the answers were : («) " Very much easier." (/;) " It is always easier 

 if they see another one do it often." (c) "This would also depend on certain 

 conditions. In teaching to jump out of a box and in again, seeing another 

 might help, but in teaching something very dilTicult, I do not think it would 

 be the case." {d) " It is not." 



