98 FISHING FOR PLEASURE 



tensely interesting has he found them. Some 

 individual animals and birds of the same species 

 seem to possess a special and an acute intelli- 

 gence that lifts them enormously above the level 

 of their fellows just, I suppose, as there be de- 

 grees of dullness, cunning,and intelligence among 

 humans and of these he gives many amusing 

 instances; it may be said that whilst making 

 these investigations he has had in mind these 

 two things the new facts that he has discovered, 

 and the interpretation thereof, and he makes it 

 evident that there is still very much to be learned 

 from them, and that we are not quite through 

 with them when we have cried instinct and 

 named their species, nor altogether justified in 

 killing them industriously off the face of the 

 earth. Beneath their fur and feathers is their 

 life; and a few observers are learning that their 

 life also, with its faint suggestion of our own 

 primeval childhood, is one of intense human 

 interest. Some of them plan and calculate, and 

 mathematics, however elementary, is hardly a 

 matter of instinct; some of them build dams 

 and canals; some have definite social regulations; 

 some rescue comrades; some bind their own 

 wounds, and even set a broken leg, as will be 

 seen in the instances which I will quote. 



"The Little Brother of the Bear" Moowee- 

 suk, as the Indians call him is the coon, and 

 an amusing, greedy, plucky little wretch he is. 



