xxxiv THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 



for Dicquemase asserts that oysters taken from a depth never uncovered by the sea, 

 open their shellsj lose the water within, and perish ; but oysters taken from the same 

 place and depth, if kept in reservoirs, where they are occasionally left uncovered for a 

 short time, and are otherwise incommoded, learn to keep their shells shut, and they 

 live for a much longer time when taken out of the water." Is this act simply reflex ? 

 Limpets have been known, after making excursions from their resting places in order 

 to browse on seaweed, to return repeatedly to one spot or home. The precise memory 

 of direction and locality implied by this fact, adds Romanes, "seems to justify us in 

 regarding these actions of the animal as of a nature unquestionably intelligent." 



Concerning snails Darwin remarks : " These animals appear also susceptible of some 

 degree of permanent attachment ; an accurate observer, Mr. Lonsdale, informs me that 

 he placed a pair of land-shells {Helix pomatia), one of which was weakly, in a small 

 and ill-provided garden. After a short time the strong and healthy individual disap- 

 peared, and was traced by its track of slime over a wall into an adjoining well-stocked 

 garden. Mr. Lonsdale concluded that it had deserted its sickly mate ; but after an ab- 

 sence of twenty-four hours it returned, and apparently communicated the result of its 

 successful exploration, for both then started along the same track and disappeared 

 over the wall." 



Mr. W. H. Dall gives a remarkable instance of intelligence in a snail, kept as a i^et 

 by a child, which recognized her voice and distinguished it from that of others. The 

 lady who told the story to the person who sent it to Mr. Dall, after stating that her 

 sister Georgie was, from the age Of three years, quite an invalid, and remarkable for her 

 power of putting herself en rapport with all living things, said : " Before she could say 

 more than a few words, she had formed an acquaintance with a toad, which used to 

 come from behind the log where it lived, and sit winking before her in answer to her call, 

 and waddle back when she grew tired and told it to go away. When she was between five 

 and six years of age, I found a snail shell, as I thought, which I gave to her to amuse 

 her, on my return from a picnic. The snail soon crawled out, to her delight, and after 

 night disappeared, causing great lamentation. A large, old fashioned sofa in the front 

 hall was moved in a day or two, and in it was found the snail glued fast ; it had crawled 

 down stairs. I took a plant jar of violets and, placing the snail in it, carried it to her, 

 and sunk a small toy cup even with the s6il, filling it with meal. This was because I 

 had read that French people feed snails on meal. The creature soon found it, and we 

 observed it with interest for a while, as we found it had a mouth which lookedpink in- 

 side and appeared to us to have tiny teeth also. We grew tired of it, but Georgie's 

 interest never flagged, and she surprised me one day by telling us that her snail knew 

 her and would come to her when she talked to it, but would withdraw into its shell if 

 anyone else spoke. This was really so, as I saw her prove to one and another time 

 after time." Mr. Dall adds : " An observer who noticed and remembered the pink 

 buccal mass, the lingual teeth, and the translucent raistletoe-berry-like eggs, and after 

 such an interval of time could so accurately describe them, is entitled to the fullest 

 credence in other details of the story, and I have no doubt of its substantial accuracy, 

 in spite of its surprising nature." 



The Crustacea are perhaps, as regards intelligence, on a level with the majority of 

 insects, excepting the white ants and ichneumons, wasps, and bees. 



The power of finding their way home, which of course is due to memory, is illus- 

 trated in the following instance published by Mr. E. W. Cox in " Nature " for April 

 3, 1873. " The fishermen of Falmouth catch their crabs off the Lizard rocks, and they 



