190 VIGNETTES FROM NATURE. 



tion, the natural head and crown of one great 

 line of mammalian development. To doubt 

 their intelligence is to impugn the whole con- 

 duct of nature, to upset the entire system of 

 evolutionary psychology off-hand. Donkeys 

 cannot help being clever, because they are 

 the final survivors in the struggle for existence 

 in one of the most specialised, most highly 

 developed, and most dominant mammalian 

 stocks. They do not represent mere stranded 

 and struggling relics of older types, like the 

 very silly kangaroos, and ant-eaters, and 

 hedgehogs, which drag on a miserable 

 existence behind the times in out-of-the-way 

 holes and corners of the earth : they are one 

 of the finest developments of one of the most 

 successful branches of the great progressive 

 ungulate tribe. I feel a genuine respect for 

 every donkey I meet when I remember that 

 it was the mere accidental possession of an 

 opposable thumb that gave my ancestors a 

 start over his in the race for the inheritance 



