DO ANIMALS THINK AND REFLECT? 



I read of a beaver that cut down a tree which 

 was held in such a way that it did not fall, but sim- 

 ply dropped down the height of the stump. The 

 beaver cut it off again; again it dropped and re- 

 fused to fall; he cut it off a third and a fourth time: 

 still the tree stood. Then he gave it up. Now, so 

 far as I can see, the only independent intelligence 

 the animal showed was when it ceased to cut off the 

 tree. Had it been a complete automaton, it would 

 have gone on cutting — would it not ? — till it made 

 stove-wood of the whole tree. It was confronted 

 by a new problem, and after a while it took the 

 hint. Of course it did not understand what was the 

 matter, as you and I would have, but it evidently 

 concluded that something was wrong. Was this of 

 itself an act of intelligence ? Though it may be that 

 its ceasing to cut off the tree was simply the result 

 of discouragement, and involved no mental con- 

 clusion at all. It is a new problem, a new condition, 

 that tests an animal's intelUgence. How long it 

 takes a caged bird or beast to learn that it cannot 

 escape ! What a man would see at a glance it takes 

 weeks or months to pound into the captive bird, or 

 squirrel, or coon. When the prisoner ceases to strug- 

 gle, it is probably not because it has at last come to 

 understand the situation, but because it is discour- 

 aged. It is checked, but not enlightened. 



Even so careful an observer as Gilbert White 

 credits the swallow with an act of judgment to 

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