Russia sayb, can be taught, if you have 

 the patience, to count up to ten, while 

 a certain tribe of men in Polynesia, 

 "higher" animals, you know, cannot be 

 taught to count beyond five or six. 



This same doctor had an intelligent 

 Dog which was accustomed, like other 

 Dogs, to bury his surplus bones in the 

 garden. In order to test the mental 

 powers of this animal the doctor one day 

 gave him no less than twenty-six bones, 

 every one of which he saw the Dog 

 duly bury in separate places. The next 

 day no food was given him at meal 

 time, but he was commanded by his 

 master to dig up the bones. This the 

 intelligent fellow proceeded to do, but 

 after uncovering ten came to a full 

 stop. After whining and running 

 about in great perplexity he finally 

 succeeded in unearthing nine more. 

 Still he seemed conscious that he had 

 not found the full number and kept up 

 the search till he had fetched to his 

 master the other seven. 



I think that was too much to ask of 

 any Dog, don't you? Many a little boy 

 or girl who goes to school couldn't 

 count that number of bones, though 

 you can, of course. 



Well, the doctor then turned his at- 

 tention to the Cat. When pussy was 

 good and hungry a tempting morsel of 

 meat was held under her nose, then 

 withdrawn five times in succession; the 

 sixth time she was permitted to secure 

 it. This was repeated every day, till 

 she got accustomed to waiting for the 

 presentation of the meat five times; but 

 upon the sixth Pussy never failed to 

 spring forward and seize the meat. 

 The doctor attempted the experiment 

 with a higher number, but the Cat 

 stuck to her first lesson and after 

 counting one, two, three, four, five, 

 six, would invariablv mc^^A? the spring. 

 Had he begun Wixix _>., asfsy might 



have shown herself capable of counting 

 that number as well as the Crow and 

 the Parrot. 



A farmer tells of a Horse which in 

 plowing had acquired the habit of 

 counting the furrows, stopping for a 

 rest regularly at the twentieth row. 

 The farmer at the end of the da> used 

 to estimate the amount of work done, 

 not by counting the furrows but by 

 remembering how many times the 

 Horse had stopped to rest. The poor 

 animal had never been taught his fig- 

 ures, and his mind did not say "one, 

 two, three," and so on, but all the same 

 he had his way of counting, and never 

 failed to know when he had reached 

 twenty. 



Still another Horse was able to count 

 the mile-posts and had been trained by 

 its master to stop for feed when they 

 had covered eighteen miles of a certain 

 road. He always stopped after pass- 

 ing the eighteenth post. To test him 

 they put up three false mile-posts be- 

 tween the real ones, and, sure enough, 

 deceived by the trick, he stopped at the 

 eighteenth post for his oats, unaware 

 that he had not covered eighteen miles. 



The doctor also observed another 

 Horse which was accustomed to receiv- 

 ing his oats precisely at noon. When- 

 ever the clock struck an hour the Horse 

 pricked up his ears as if counting the 

 strokes. If he heard twelve, off he 

 would trot to be fed, but if a less num- 

 ber he would plod on resignedly at his 

 work. The experiment was made of 

 striking twelve strokes at the wrong 

 time, whereupon the Horse started for 

 his oats though he had been fed only 

 an hour before. 



All of which goes to prove that the 

 capacity of an animal's mind is limited, 

 and, so you may say, is that of the 

 average man. 



Mrs. E. K. Marble. 



149 



