224 THE PSYCHICAL KINSHIP 



when an impression is made a second, third, or 

 thirteenth time. 



Animals of experience (including men) are more 

 skilful in adjusting themselves to environmental 

 exigencies than the young and inexperienced, 

 because of their store of initial impressions. It 

 is a matter of common observation that young 

 animals are more easily caught or killed or other- 

 wise victimised than the old and experienced. 

 Many animals, however, (and a good many men) 

 are able to profit by a single impression. One 

 dose of tartar emetic is generally sufficient to cure 

 an egg-sucking dog, and it is a very stupid canine 

 indeed that does not understand perfectly after 

 one or two experiences with a porcupine or an 

 unsavory skunk. * The burnt child dreads the 

 fire,' but so does the burnt puppy. Rengger states 

 that his Paraguay monkeys, after cutting them- 

 selves only once with any sharp tool, would not 

 touch it again, or would handle it with the greatest 

 caution (lo). Older trout are more wary than 

 young ones, and fishes that have been much 

 hunted and deceived become suspicious of traps. 

 Rats, martins, and other animals cannot long be 

 trapped in the same way, and partridges and other 

 birds seldom fly against telegraph-wires the second 

 season after the wires are put up. These animals, 

 however, cannot learn to avoid these dangers from 

 experience, for only a few of them are ever caught 

 or struck. They must learn it from observing 

 their unfortunate companions. Everyone who has 

 read the story of Lobo, the big gray wolf of the 



