x SOME EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS 203 



very rough, and the average time nearly constant from day to 

 day. Such seems the typical character of a trick in which the 

 point is not clearly apprehended, and all the animal knows is, 

 roughly, that a certain sort of action is required. 



The elephant learnt this trick better than Jack, but, on 

 the whole, in the same way 



After leaving her to fumble with the bolt and bar for a long 

 time, I showed her both movements. After this, she twice suc- 

 ceeded in a fumbling way. She seemed to learn from this that 

 both bolt and lever had to be used, and that the bolt came first. 

 (She only three times afterwards made a mistake on this point, 

 and only once seriously.) At the eighth and ninth trials she 

 succeeded again, 1 and the next day was successful, though in a 

 fumbling way, throughout. I only once noticed her definitely 

 trying to push the bolt the wrong way, and when once I turned 

 the box round (so that to pull in the same direction as before 

 would be wrong), she tried to push instead of pull, and then, 

 after a little fumbling in the wrong direction, moved round in 

 her stall so as to get in the right position for pulling. 2 



On the whole, we may say that the elephant learnt that 

 the bolt must be pushed inwards, and the lever then 

 pulled. She nearly learnt this from seeing it done two or 

 three times, and had it practically perfect after eight trials, 

 in which she had herself done it three times. She failed to 

 learn that the bolt must be pushed quite back. 



(6). Catch. 



I had a box made for Jack, closed with an ordinary 

 window-catch. He could lift it with his nose, and then 

 open the box by pulling at the catch with his paw. This 

 second movement, unless skilfully applied, was apt to 

 close the catch again ; and this difficulty entirely baffled 

 the cat, who never tried to lift the catch, but failed in 

 this preliminary. Tim, I must say, showed great stupidity 

 in this experiment. He never grasped that by merely 

 changing his position he would avoid the hitch, but would 



1 The experiment ended for the day at this point, because Lily 

 succeeded in getting hold of the box, with which she was obviously 

 annoyed, and leant her chin on it. It was a very strong box, but an 

 adjournment for repairs was at once necessary. 



2 When I reversed the box again, she was not so successful, fumbling a 

 bit, but presently she seemed to get accidentally into a better position, 

 and then opened the box easily. 



