WAYS OF NATURE 



the cat and the scent of the fox, why should it not 

 develop and sharpen their wits also ? The remote 

 ancestors of the fox or of the crow were doubtless less 

 shrewd and cunning than the crows and the foxes of 

 to-day. The instinctive inteUigence of an animal of 

 our time is the sum of the variations toward greater 

 intelligence of all its ancestors. What man stores in 

 language and in books ■ — the accumulated results 

 of experience — the animals seem to have stored in 

 instinct. As Darwin says, a man cannot,, on his first 

 trial, make a stone hatchet or a canoe through his 

 power of imitation. " He has to learn his work by 

 practice ; a beaver, on the other hand, can make its 

 dam or canal, and a bird its nest, as well or nearly 

 as well, and a spider its wonderful web quite as 

 well, the first time it tries as when old and expe- 

 rienced." 



An animal shows intelligence, as distinct from 

 instinct, when it takes advantage of any circum- 

 stance that arises at the moment, when it finds new 

 ways, whether better or not, as when certain birds 

 desert their old nesting-sites, and take up with new 

 ones afforded by man. This act, at least, shows 

 power of choice. The birds and beasts all quickly 

 avail themselves of any new source of food supply. 

 Their wits are probably more keen and active here 

 than in any other direction. It is said that in Okla- 

 homa the coyotes have learned to tell ripe water- 

 melons from unripe ones by scratching upon them. 

 82 



