STUPIDITY. 125 



enable it to pass with the same stick pulled through end- 

 ways. Here we have probably simple want of reflection and 

 calculation. 



Several sporting dogs lost themselves in a reed-bed fifty 

 yards broad, and were ultimately found there dead. They 

 had made no attempt to escape from their imaginary prison, 

 for escape would have been easy and must have rewarded 

 persistent attempts. Probably from bewilderment they were 

 unable to help themselves in any way for instance, to food 

 supply. Hence they perished of hunger, the victims, ap- 

 parently, of their own stupidity. Here again probably, as 

 in the case of the Scotch shepherd's dog above mentioned, 

 we have the result of mere special, as contrasted with general, 

 training the cultivation of a certain kind of aptitude, skill, 

 or knowledge compared with general sagacity. No doubt 

 the animals were as excellent sporting dogs pointers or 

 setters as the shepherd's dog may have been one of the 

 best of its kind. But the dogs were specially educated only 

 to point game ; and while they did this admirably, they were 

 otherwise so stupid and helpless as readily to lose them- 

 selves and starve to death in consequence. Such an in- 

 stance of way-losing in sporting dogs must be set as a per 

 contra against the wonderful instances of way-finding of 

 which we hear so much now and then. 



Again, a master dropped a small parcel on a road. His 

 dog remained behind and watched it for hours it might 

 have been for days till it was picked up by the said master. 

 A simple use of its teeth would have enabled the animal to 

 have carried the parcel after and to its master, without any 

 waiting on its own part, and without having given its master 

 the trouble of going back to look for and recover the lost 

 article. But the dog probably was not trained to carry ; or 

 it was incapable of dealing properly with emergency ; or it 

 showed a want of due reflection. There was certainly an 

 absence of that natural and general sagacity with which the 

 species is credited, but which is most unequally distributed 

 amongst the individuals composing it. 



Similar helpless stupidity is occasionally seen in another 

 animal of a very different kind, which is usually and pro- 



