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 intelligence. 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 
167 
