Intelligence 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



352 



1721. 



Modification of In- 



stinct in Birds Jackdaws Build Buttress 

 for Their Nest. A pair of jackdaws en- 

 deavored to construct their nest in one of 

 the small windows that lighted the spiral 

 staircase of an old church-tower. As is 

 usual, however, in such windows, the sill 

 sloped inwards with a considerable inclina- 

 tion; and, consequently, there being no level 

 base for the nest, as soon as a few sticks had 

 been laid, and it was beginning to acquire 

 weight, it slid down. This seems to have 

 happened two or three times; nevertheless 

 the birds clung with great pertinacity to 

 the site they had selected, and at last de- 

 vised a most ingenious method of overcoming 

 the difficulty. Collecting a great number of 

 sticks, they built up a sort of cone upon 

 the staircase, the summit of which rose to 

 the level of the window-sill and afforded the 

 requisite support to the nest; this cone was 

 not less than six feet high, and so large at 

 its base as quite to obstruct the passage up 

 the staircase ; yet, notwithstanding the large 

 amount of material which it contained, it 

 was known to have been constructed within 

 four or five days. Now as this was a device 

 quite foreign to the natural habit of the 

 bird, and only hit upon after the repeated 

 failure of its ordinary method of nest-build- 

 ing, the curious adaptation of means to ends 

 which it displayed can scarcely be regarded 

 in any other light than as proceeding from a 

 design in the minds of the individuals who 

 executed it. CAEPENTEE Mental Physiology, 

 ch. 2, p. 86. (A., 1900.) 



1722. 



The Ants Rank 



Near to Man Superior to the Anthropoid 

 Apes. The anthropoid apes no doubt ap- 

 proach nearer to man in bodily structure 

 than do any other animals; but when we 

 consider the habits of ants, their social or- 

 ganization, their large communities and 

 elaborate habitations ; their roadways, their 

 possession of domestic animals, and even, in 

 some cases, of slaves, it must be admitted 

 that they have a fair claim to rank next to 

 man in the scale of intelligence. AVEBTJRY 

 Ants, Bees, and Wasps, ch. 1, p. 1. (A., 

 1900.) 



1723. 



The Cat^Skill in 



Dealing with Mechanical Contrivances. I 

 have received some half-dozen instances of 

 this display of intelligence [the opening of a 

 thumb-latch] on the part of cats. These in- 

 stances are all such precise repetitions of 

 one another that I conclude the fact to be 

 one of tolerably ordinary occurrence among 

 cats, while it is certainly very rare among 

 dogs. I may add that my own coachman 

 once had a cat which, certainly without 

 tuition, learned thus to open a door that 

 led into the stables from a yard into which 

 looked some of the windows of the house. 

 Standing at these windows when the cat did 

 not see me, I have many times witnessed her 

 modus operandi. Walking up to the door 

 with a most matter-of-course kind of air, 



she used to spring at the half-hoop handle 

 just below the thumb-latch. Holding on to 

 the bottom of this half-loop with one fore- 

 paw, she then raised the other to the thumb- 

 piece, and, while depressing the latter, finally 

 with her hind legs scratched and pushed the 

 doorposts so as to open the door. Precisely 

 similar movements are described by my cor- 

 respondents as having been witnessed by 

 them. ROMANES Animal Intelligence, ch. 

 14, p. 420. (A., 1899.) 



1724. The Elephant- 

 Rapid Domestication Limited Attainment 

 Education Early Becomes Complete. No 

 animal affords a more striking illustration 

 of the principal points which I have been 

 endeavoring to establish than the elephant; 

 for, in the first place, the wonderful sagacity 

 with which he accommodates himself to the 

 society of man, and the new habits which he 

 contracts, are not the result of time, nor of 

 modifications produced in the course of 

 many generations. [Tho] these animals 

 will breed in captivity, ... it has al- 

 ways been the custom, as the least expensive 

 mode of obtaining them, to capture wild in- 

 dividuals in the forests, usually when full 

 grown; and in a few years after they are 

 taken sometimes, it is said, in the space of 

 a few months their education is completed. 



Had the whole species been domesticated 

 from an early period in the history of man, 

 like the camel, their superior intelligence 

 would, doubtless, have been attributed to 

 their long and familiar intercourse with the 

 lord of the creation, but we know that a few 

 years is sufficient to bring about this won- 

 derful change of habits, and altho the same 

 individual may continue to receive tuition 

 for a century afterwards, yet it makes no 

 farther progress in the development of its 

 faculties. LYELL Principles of Geology, bk. 

 iii, ch. 35, p. 598. (A., 1854.) 



1725. 



The Shepherd Dog 



Story of the " Ettrick Shepherd " Recov- 

 ery of Lost Sheep. The following is a very 

 remarkable case of this kind, which occurred 

 in the experience of James Hogg, the " Et- 

 trick Shepherd," the associate of Walter 

 Scott and Christopher North: 



Mr. Hogg goes on to narrate the follow- 

 ing, among other remarkable exploits, in 

 illustration of Sirrah's sagacity. About 

 seven hundred lambs, which were at once 

 under his care at weaning-time, broke up at 

 midnight, and scampered off in three divi- 

 sions across the hills, in spite of all that the 

 shepherd and an assistant lad could do to 

 keep them together. " Sirrah," cried the 

 shepherd in great affliction, "my man, 

 they're a* awa." The night was so dark that 

 he did not see Sirrah; but the faithful ani- 

 mal had heard his master's words words 

 such as of all others were sure to set him 

 most on the alert; and without any delay, 

 he silently set off in quest of the recreant 

 flock. Meanwhile the shepherd and his com- 

 panion did not fail to do all that was in 



