80 OBSERVATION OF 



* instinct ' in animals. Instances of faulty observation, even 

 by naturalists, are to be found in the different accounts that 

 have been given of the habits of harvesting ants, and of the 

 uses of its tail by the beaver. Those who are most intimately 

 associated with the lower animals frequently fail to notice 

 their mental peculiarities from want of the proper training 

 of their observative and reflective powers ; while they commit 

 numerous errors of interpretation or inference from ignorance, 

 prejudice, superstition, or the other faults specified in the 

 chapter which treats of the proper * method of enquiry ' 

 concerning the character of mind in the lower animals. 

 Thus the most important information that has been derived or 

 contributed on the subject of mind in the lower animals has 

 not come from veterinarians, sportsmen, jockeys, cattle dealers, 

 drovers, shepherds, butchers, grooms, or ostlers, but from 

 naturalists, accustomed to the accurate observation of 

 natural phenomena and to a proper appreciation of the value 

 of the facts of observation. Illustrations of exact and con- 

 scientious observation, and record of facts or observations, 

 are to be found in the writings of Charles Darwin, Houzeau, 

 Wallace, Belt, Moggridge, Spalding, Terrier, the Hubers, 

 Fleeson, and many other authors, whose names are generally 

 mentioned in these pages, or specially in the appended 

 Bibliography. There is, perhaps, no better example to all 

 than Audubon's study of bird habits in the forests of 

 North America. 



All that is necessary to an understanding of the nature 

 and range of animal reason is a study of the commonest 

 facts of observation those which are capable of the easiest 

 daily verification in the horse, dog, cat, canary, and other 

 domestic animals, in almost every country under the sun. 

 If once established or fixed by common experience, such 

 facts can neither be overthrown nor explained away. Facts, 

 however, must ever be carefully distinguished from in- 

 ferences, or opinions based upon them, which may vary 

 ad infinitum. The Eev. Gilbert White, of Selborne, has 

 shown how fertile a field of observation may exist in a 

 limited rural locality; and, in fact, a field of observation, 

 more or less fertile, is to be found in every farm-yard, 



