176 UPLAND AND MEADOW. 



forms of animal life will usually find it very diflBcult to 

 detect pronounced evidences of cunning or skill, yet 

 will always, I believe, feel convinced of a difference in 

 the degree of intelligence among allied forms. Cer- 

 tainly, in mammals and birds this difference obtains and 

 has been often commented upon, and, logically, the same 

 should be true of invertebrates, although it is far more 

 difficult to demonstrate the fact. 



In bees, wasps, and trap-door spiders there is, of 

 course, much to comment upon as proofs of these creat- 

 ures' intelligence, but in the case of a water-scorpion 

 all this is wanting, yet I believe no one can carefully 

 watch them for an hour or more without being im- 

 pressed that they are methodical, cautious, and — may I 

 add ? — contemplative. 



And why may not a water-bug think, as well as a 

 spider ? A German naturalist says of the latter, " that 

 they reflect is proved by the fact that they despise cer- 

 tain kinds of tough, chitinous insects which they have 

 unsuccessfully attacked before. This reflection is to be 

 distinguished from the instinctive dread which they 

 have for bee-like flies." 



"While I doubt not but that the great majority of 

 people will scout the idea that a mere impression, and 

 an apparently very fanciful one, is of value in judging 

 of an animal's intellectual status, I feel warranted in 

 offering the suggestion that if such impressions, in the 

 minds of unprejudiced observers, are uniform, whenever 

 the animal is under inspection, even if no act can bo 

 specialized as thoughtful, then they are proper criteria 

 upon which to base a conclusion. 



