166 A PHILOSOPHER WITH NATURE 



subject. Among ourselves it is well known how 

 such a condition stimulates thought. Every public 

 speaker who has held a large audience knows how 

 it tends to promote the flow of ideas. In animals, 

 in those cases of exceptional individual intelligence 

 referred to, it may be noticed how often this condi- 

 tion prevails. Cats, birds, and almost aU animals, 

 may be noticed to exhibit, as in the case of the wild 

 duck just mentioned, greatly quickened intelligence 

 in their actions in supreme crises where the safety 

 of their young is concerned. Similarly, in cases 

 of extreme individual danger, or of great desire, we 

 often get marked instances of animal intelligence. 

 Where both these conditions are combined, as in 

 the attitude of wolves, jackals, foxes, and other 

 animals to traps, we get those surprising instances 

 of intelhgence which are recounted, and often 

 received with increduhty, though they are probably 

 in the great majority of cases quite true. The 

 experiences of professional trappers in northern 

 Michigan give instances of foxes acting so intelli- 

 gently in regard to the mechanism of the ordinary 

 spring-trap that they consistently burrowed beneath 

 the jaws so as to push down the pan from beneath, 

 and thus spring the trap with safety. 



Similarly, in cases of concentration of attention 

 under the influence of strong emotional excitement, 

 as when the animal is wounded, there is often 

 evidence of great stimulation of intelhgence. 

 Menault relates the case of an eagle caught in a trap 

 and afterwards undergoing a surgical operation. 

 " Though his head was left loose, he made no attempt 

 to interfere with the agonizing extraction of the 

 spUnters, or to disturb the arrangements of the 



