LIABILITY TO ERROR. 491 



There are certain disadvantages, as well as advantages, 

 from arranging the errors of the lower animals under such 

 heads as have just been given. And indeed, the disadvan- 

 tages so preponderate over the advantages, that it is prefer- 

 able not to fetter ourselves by, or to, any given classification, 

 because it will soon appear obvious that any one animal, 

 such as the bee, or dog, may commit errors referable to a 

 great many categories or classes; while any given error may 

 involve observation, judgment, reflection, memory, and a 

 number of other mental qualities. Moreover, there are whole 

 groups of mistakes that cannot as yet, or at present, be 

 properly explained, though they may become quite capable 

 of explanation when the errors of the lower animals have 

 attracted the kind and degree of study that they deserve. 



Not only, however, do animals make mistakes innumer- 

 able; but they themselves discover, or detect and rectify, 

 their own mistakes, while they notice equally those of other 

 animals, and of man himself. There is, in the first place, 

 a consciousness, recognition, or perception of error, which 

 frequently leads to an avowal or confession of it in the form 

 of shame, chagrin, or self-blame. This sense of error is often 

 followed by efforts at rectification, by obvious and earnest 

 desire to make amends, or atonement. There may be at- 

 first but a suspicion of error, which begets expressions of 

 anxiety and distrust, and leads to investigation, inquiry, or 

 examination, testing or experiment ; and the latter process, 

 which may be very cautious, careful and thorough, usually 

 leads to conviction, either of error, or of freedom from it. As 

 in man, this correction of first errors is the result, usually, 

 either of: 



1. The use of other senses than the one originally at 

 fault ; 



2. The acquisition of experience; or 



3. The application of judgment, involving reflection, 

 comparison, the sense of the relation of cause and effect, and 

 other mental qualities assignable to the domain of reason. 



The parrot, and other birds, make t false notes ' in song ; 

 but they immediately recognise their blunders and correct 

 them ( ' Percy Anecdotes ' ) . Dray horses and mules fre- 



