174 WILD NEIGHBORS CHAP. 
which soon wearies it, and makes it both incapable 
and unreceptive of further instruction until it has 
rested. This is a fact worth remembering by 
amateurs who teach tricks to their pets, and often 
err by lessons too long continued. 
In the Sz. Wicholas magazine for February, 
1882, appeared a valuable article upon ‘“ Men-and- 
Animal Shows,” in which the following remark- 
able statement is made; I have never known of 
its parallel: “During the winter of 1881, a num- 
ber of elephants were in training at Bridgeport, 
Conn., for the summer campaign of Mr. P. T. 
Barnum. They submitted, from day to day, with 
vast grumbling and trumpeting, to have one leg 
or another tied up, and be driven around on what 
they had left. They lay down; got up; obeyéd 
every order of the teacher as well as ever they 
could; carefully imitated one another; but their 
great sagacity was shown after the animals were 
left a little to themselves. The keepers observed 
them on their exercise ground, with no human 
teacher near to offer a word of suggestion or ex- 
planation, and yet, singly or in pairs, the huge 
scholars gravely repeated their lessons, and. did 
their ‘practising’ on their own account. This 
was the secret of the wonderful proficiency they 
afterward exhibited in the ring.” 
These facts, which I have verified, form quite 
the most noteworthy evidence I have ever learned 
in regard to animal intelligence as affected by 
“ 
