1 82 WILD NEIGHBORS chap. 



criticism of most, if not all, the exhibitions of 

 trained animals seen in modern days ; namely, 

 that the "tricks" they are taught are in them- 

 selves trivial and without any purpose likely to 

 interest or reward the performer. They tend to 

 stultify rather than improve the animal's mind ; 

 and, so far from being marvels of intelligence, 

 rarely show even the extent of the natural capa- 

 bilities discernible by an appreciative eye in the 

 untrained animal. The truth is the trainer is 

 exhibiting himself, not his animals, and it is the 

 teacher rather than his pupils that we ought to 

 admire. 



Wolves have always been regarded as nearly 

 intractable ; but that they could be both tamed 

 and trained has been shown within the past few 

 years by a French trainer who had a pack that 

 would perform like dogs. The hyena, too, is 

 taught tricks, but it is said to require a long 

 time and many lessons to force anything into 

 his head. Seals, on the contrary, are docile, and 

 are taught to do a number of feats which derive 

 their interest mainly from seeing the attempts 

 of such awkward animals to do what a dog 

 or cat would do naturally and easily. They show, 

 at any rate, bright minds and great docility. 



A pretty young woman lately caused much inter- 

 est in Paris by an exhibition of trained rabbits, and 

 Mademoiselle Claire's white pets seemed greatly 

 to enjoy their mimicry of the big elephants of 



