THE INSTINCT OF ANIMALS 165 



in the individual initiating and directing action in 

 such circumstances as may arise, and doing this 

 with a growing perception of the relations between 

 cause and effect. In the second place, it has to 

 be remarked that zoological affinity does not indicate 

 the hne of this upward advance. The rat and the 

 beaver, for instance, which furnish two of the most 

 notable examples of animal intelligence, belong to a 

 group comparatively low in the scale. The positions 

 of the horse, the dog, the parrot, and even that of 

 the elephant and the monkey, are similarly not 

 clearly suggested by their structural affinities. 



The conditions just referred to as favourable to 

 the display of individual intelligence in animals 

 are, I think, worthy of closer attention than they 

 have hitherto received. Civilized man thinks so 

 readily, and so easily, that we do not realize what a 

 special and concentrated effort the mere rudiments 

 of thought must imply in an animal. The expression 

 of unutterable weariness which overspreads the faces 

 of some savages when they are asked questions 

 requiring a Mttle mental effort has often been recorded 

 by observers. How much more should we expect 

 thought to require a supreme effort in an animal. 

 In the valuable series of experiments recently 

 conducted it is interesting to notice the efforts 

 made to fix the attention of the animals, and how 

 difficult it often was to retain it. 



It may be observed that in most of the striking 

 instances of individual intelligence that are from 

 time to time recorded, there is a condition that is 

 usually present. The circumstances are nearly 

 always those in which some overpowering cause 

 tends to concentrate the animal's mind on one 



