BIKDS AND MEN 161 



his constant association with the cuckoo he apparently 

 learnt to count, and he would often (not by any means 

 always) coo the time quite correctly after his wooden 

 tutor. I have heard him at all sorts of hours, day and 

 night, and even at the half -hours, and there was one 

 marked occasion when it was impossible to make any 

 mistake. My children were just out of quarantine from 

 scarlet fever, and for three successive evenings I happened 

 to be sitting with them in their bedroom at nine o'clock. 

 The moment the cuckoo ended, the dove began, and 

 struck nine as neatly as the clock. This occurred on two 

 out of the three evenings. On the third he cooed eight 

 times, and then paused, amid the breathless excitement 

 of the listeners. Then a moment after he triumphantly 

 finished the hour with one more decided and glorious 

 "coo"! 



H. E. 



NOTE. Some savages can only count up to five, and 

 there has been great difficulty in teaching the more back- 

 ward children of the East End to reach double figures. 

 Such accuracy of imitation by the member of a by no 

 means gifted family reminds me of Kroll's famous think- 

 ing horses. They were adepts at addition, subtraction, 

 multiplication, division, fractions, and square and cube 

 roots, drawing wise men to their stalls as to an eighth 

 wonder of the world. When they were cross or bored or 

 distrait they made mistakes, mistakes of a "curious 

 intelligibility " which they knew how to correct. The 

 genius for figures displayed by these distinguished 

 ambassadors from the Houyhnhms included the power of 

 precise attention, concentration, memory, and association, 

 and their feats (partially achieved afterwards by an Aire- 

 dale) excited so much professional interest that the honour 

 of opening a " new chapter in the psychology of animals " 

 was granted them. 



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