70 The Carnivora. 
poor brute, muzzled and chained, had been walked ten miles, 
from London to a country village, on a hot day; and was made 
to perform a number of antics on the green before a public 
house for the amusement of the yokels, myself among the 
number. The discipline and docility exhibited by this animal, 
whether he had been indoctrinated by the red hot iron or a 
thick stick, indicated to my mind no mean powers of reflection. 
The keepers at the Zoological Gardens have taught their 
charges many show tricks. For instance, one of them will turn 
somersaults at command in different directions, and in feeding 
the Malayan sun bears the man says this is for so and so, and 
that for so and so, the individual named taking the piece of food 
assigned to him, while his companion quietly waits his turn. 
In the Clifton Zoological Gardens, a Polar bear was observed 
by Mr. T. G. Grenfell to behave in a very intelligent manner. 
A cocoanut having been thrown into the tank, floated out of the 
bear’s reach, when it immediately began to make a current in 
the water, which soon brought the prize within reach. She 
then tried to break the nut by leaning her whole weight on it 
with one paw. Not succeeding in this, she raised herself on her 
hind legs, clasping the nut in both paws, and threw it against 
the railings of the den, a distance of a few feet. Again leaning 
her weight on it to ascertain whether it was broken, and find- 
ing it was not, she threw it once more against the bars, and 
succeeded in her object. 
It is scarcely possible to have a better instance of reflec- 
tion. The bear, not being grown up when this habit was 
acquired, would probably have had a difficulty in getting so 
large an object as a cocoanut between her molar teeth, and would 
thus be led to try some other expedient. Whether the act of 
throwing originated in accident or design, it could only be con- 
tinued with a full knowledge of the consequences. The tendency 
of Polar bears to throw, however, would seem to be natural to 
them in a wild state. Dr. John Rae remarks: “This circum- 
stance was told me by an eyewitness, a very truthful and honest 
Eskimo of Repulse Bay. He said: ‘I and two or three other 
