EDUCATION OF ANIMALS BY EACH OTHER. 277 



is direct and voluntary (Houzeau). It involves method and 

 design for instance, in the cat, that encourages the play of 

 her kittens and that herself plays with them, such play being 

 directly and obviously conducive to the development of bodily 

 agility. In the tuition of the young, parents and elders 

 apply in various ways their own experience. They employ 

 equally commendation or reward and punishment or re- 

 buke. 



Among ants the masters teach or train their slaves in or 

 by fear, though the result is good, as these slaves become 

 true servants (Figuier). Pigeons are taught to fly by the 

 medium of hunger, of physical need or necessity, artificially 

 or intentionally created by the parent bird withholding food 

 just as man does in training his courier birds (Herbert). 



In certain cases there is a special education of certain 

 individuals, as of the queen by hive bees (Kirby and Spence) ; 

 there is a distinctively physical training given to the young 

 queens by bee-nurses (Figuier). 



Certain birds and other animals set forth their own ex- 

 ample to their young, with the evident object of its imitation 

 by them ; and there can be no doubt that it is by imitation 

 that the acquisition of ability physical and mental takes 

 place, in the first instance, in the young of all the higher 

 animals, as is the case also in the human child. 



On the part of the pupil, as has been partly pointed out 

 in the chapter on ' Capacity for Education,' various mental 

 qualities are implied. There must be, in the first place, a 

 certain receptivity a capacity for learning, as well as a 

 willingness to learn. Then there is the powerful faculty of 

 imitation, whereby young animals learn to do what they see 

 done by their parents or seniors. Next there is natural 

 curiosity or inquisitiveness, a desire to know the real nature 

 of things perhaps, in the first place, in reference simply to 

 whether they are safe or dangerous. 



This curiosity thirst for knowledge in many young 

 animals leads to the development of observation, attention, 

 investigation, and even experiment. In all kinds of instruc- ^ 

 tion memory is of quite as great importance as in man. In cer- 

 tain animals there is not only anxiety to learn, but diligence 



