THE INTELLIGENCE OF MAMMALS 233 



The labyrinth and puzzle box devices of our psychological 

 laboratories have the advantage of enabling us to study 

 animal behavior under strictly controlled conditions, and 

 they readily yield results in a form capable of easy tabula- 

 tion, but they have been criticized with a certain measure 

 of justice on the ground that the artificial conditions to 

 which the animals are exposed make them appear more 

 stupid than they really are. A fox in its wary prowlings 

 for prey or in its attempts to outwit its pursuers may mani- 

 fest a considerably higher degree of intelligence than it 

 would show if confined to a box from which it had to liber- 

 ate itself by raising levers and pulling bolts. In wild an- 

 imals especially there is a falling off of spirit and initiative 

 when they are placed in an artificial environment. The 

 lion of the desert is a very different creature from the lion 

 of the circus; the keenness and alertness with which the one 

 conducts his hunt for prey, stand hi marked contrast with 

 the melancholy and reluctant performances of the other 

 when under the trainer's whip. Other animals such as 

 raccoons and some monkeys take to a life of confinement 

 much more readily, and therefore afford particularly valu- 

 able subjects for experiment. Those experiments are of 

 the most value which stimulate to the greatest extent the 

 free exercise of an animal's faculties, and in order to secure 

 this result an animal's instinctive interests and promptings 

 should be given, so far as possible, free play. 



The experiments of the last few years have given us a 

 more just estimate of the nature and limitations of the 

 intelligence of the higher animals than we formerly possessed. 

 Animal psychologists have come to scrutinize their results 

 much more closely and to be much more cautious in their 

 statements regarding what goes on in the mind of the animal 

 studied. The interpretation of what mental processes are 



