OF ANIMAL SAGACITY. 23 



of animal intelligence that would otherwise escape notice. 

 Contrasting current newspapers as repertories of reference 

 with volumes of anecdotes of animal instinct, I have found 

 the former to be more valuable and trustworthy, inasmuch 

 as inter alia newspapers usually refer to passing events, 

 the records of which admit of investigation, and the authen- 

 ticity of which records can at once be established or the 

 reverse. I have had frequent occasion to enquire into the 

 truthfulness or accuracy of newspaper paragraphs of the 

 reports of local 'correspondents' relating to singular in- 

 stances of animal intelligence ; and the result has usually 

 been that, while I have found the same incident sometimes 

 differently described in half a dozen different newspapers, all 

 the essential facts have been given accurately, or the dates 

 and names furnished enabled me to discover the actual and 

 important facts for myself. 



Much attention is now being given to the subject of 

 animal intelligence in all classes of our serials, whose num- 

 ber, scientific and literary, is simply legion. The articles 

 which illustrate or discuss the subject in question are 

 not always anonymous. For instance, in 'Nature,' as in 

 ' Science Gossip,' the name of the author is frequently or 

 usually appended, so that the value of his statements or 

 opinions may be judged of by the admitted or doubtful 

 competency of the observer or narrator. But even where 

 the articles are anonymous, as in ' Land and Water ' or the 

 'Field,' in the various London or other quarterlies or monthlies, 

 it is usually possible, sometimes easy, to discover the author's 

 name, and to gauge the veracity and value of his assertions ; 

 and we have the additional guarantee, in many if not most 

 of these serials, that the editors may be trusted to admit no 

 contributions from authors who are not competent to deal 

 with the subjects they respectively discuss. 



A common and instructive feature nowadays of all classes 

 of serials, including newspapers, is their practice of reviewing 

 works of natural history, zoology, and travel by competent 

 critics, whose comments are frequently as valuable as the 

 quoted observations of the authors criticised. The modern 

 practice of publishing volumes of reprints of articles that 



