338 ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE. 



crouched as close as it could lie, when the other walked 

 over its back.' This manoeuvre on the part of goats ha& 

 also been recorded by other writers, and is not so incre- 

 dible as it may at first sight appear, if we remember that 

 in their wild state these animals must not unfrequently 

 find themselves in this predicament. 



Mr. W. Forster, writing from Australia, gives me the 

 following account of the intelligence of a bull : — 



A rather tame bull, bred of a milch cow, used to puzzle me 

 by being found inside a paddock used for cultivation, and en- 

 closed by a two-railed fence, of which the lower rail was unu- 

 sually high. At last I saw the animal lie down close to the 

 fence, and roll over on his back, with four legs in the air, by 

 which proceeding he was inside the paddock. I never knew 

 another beast perform this feat ; and although it must have been 

 often done in the presence of a number of cows, not one of them 

 ever imitated it, though they would all have unquestionably 

 followed the bull through an opening in the fence, or by the 

 slip-rails. 



Mr. Gr. S. Erb, writing from Salt Lake City, gives me 

 an interesting account of the sagacity displayed by the wild 

 deer of the United States in avoiding gun-traps, which, 

 except for the cutting of the string, to which the teeth of 

 the animal are not so well adapted, is strikingly similar 

 to the sagacity which we shall see to be displayed in this 

 respect by sundry species of Carnivora. He says : — 



My method was this : I would fell or cut down a maple tree,, 

 the top of which they are very partial to ; and as the ground 

 was invariably covered with snow to the depth of 12 inches, 

 food was scarce, and tlie deer would come and browse, probably 

 from hearing the tree fall. I would place a loaded gun 20 feet 

 from the top of the tree at which it was pointing ; I would 

 attach a line the size of an ordinary fish-line to a lever that 

 pressed against the trigger ; the other end of the line I would 

 fasten to the tree-top. By this means the deer could not pass 

 between the tree and the gun without getting shot, or at least 

 shot at ; but I never succeeded in killing one when my line was 

 as large as a fish-line, i.e. about one-sixteenth of an inch in thick- 

 ness. Commencing at the body of the tree on one side, the deer 

 would eat all the tops to within 12 inches of the line, and then 

 go around the gun and eat all on the other side, never touching 



