WAYS OF NATURE 



time by arousing the fears of any wild bird : how all 

 the other birds catch the alarm ! Charles St. John 

 says that in Scotland the stag you are stalking is 

 sure to be put to flight if it hears the alarm-cry of 

 the cock-grouse. You see it is more important that 

 the wild creatures should understand the danger- 

 signals of one another than that they should under- 

 stand the rest of their language. 



To what extent animals reason, or show any glim- 

 mering of what we call reason, is a much-debated 

 question among animal psychologists, and I shall 

 have more to say upon the subject later on. Dogs 

 undoubtedly show gleams of reason, and other ani- 

 mals in domestication, such as the elephant and the 

 monkey. One does not often feel Uke questioning 

 Darwin's conclusions, yet the incident of the caged 

 bear which he quotes, that pawed the water in front 

 of its cage to create a current that should float within 

 its reach a piece of bread that had been placed there, 

 does not, in my judgment, show any reasoning about 

 the laws of hydrostatics. The bear would doubtless 

 have pawed a cloth in the same way, vaguely seek- 

 ing to draw the bread within reach. But when an 

 elephant blows through his trunk upon the ground 

 beyond an object which he wants, but which is be- 

 yond his reach, so that the rebounding air will drive 

 it toward him, he shows something very much like 

 reason. 



Instinct is a kind of natural reason, — reason 

 76 



