160 NATURE STUDIES. 



unfolding it they got stung" (the tenderness of some 

 of these students of science towards animals is quite 

 touching). " After this had once happened, they 

 always first held the packet to their ears, to detect 

 any movement within ." These were not monkeys of 

 the higher orders, but American monkeys, none of 

 which are so near man in cerebral development as the 

 orang, the champanzee, the gibbon, or the gorilla. 

 The next cases relate to the dog, and are important, 

 first, because two independent observers give evi- 

 dence in the same direction ; and secondly, because 

 the action of the dogs can hardly be explained as 

 resulting from the modification of an instinct. " Mr. 

 Colquhoun winged two wild ducks, which fell on the 

 opposite side of a stream ; his retriever tried to 

 bring over both at once, but could not succeed ; she 

 then, though never before known to ruffle a feather, 

 deliberately killed one, brought over the other, and 

 returned for the dead bird. Colonel Hutchinson 

 relates that two partridges were shot at once, one 

 being killed, the other wounded ; the latter ran away, 

 and was caught by the retriever, who on his return 

 came across the dead bird. ( She stopped, evidently 

 greatly puzzled, and after one or two trials, finding she 

 could not take it up without permitting the escape of 

 the winged bird, she considered a moment, then 

 deliberately murdered it 9 (the winged bird), ' by 

 giving it a severe crunch, and afterwards brought 

 away both together. This was the only known in- 

 stance of her having wilfully injured any game/ 



