1876.] Animal Humor. 269 
That Jack might have had a grandfather smart enough for that, 
one may not dispute; but that he ever had an ancestor similarly 
held in limbo, and tried as he had been, is far from probable. 
Necessity is the mother of invention; and to me it seems that 
Jack, with no thanks to any ancestor, had to exercise his own 
wits in an original way. We had a coati-mundi, Nasua fusca, 
which we often tantalized with an egg, a dainty that it loved too 
well. Having tied the animal by the neck to the table leg, the 
egg was put at an unreasonable distance on the floor. The ani- 
mal would tug at the string, and make most earnest efforts to ob- 
tain the prize, first by the use of the forefeet, and then, failing, 
by the use of the hinder. This being also of no avail, it would 
change its tactics completely, pulling by its neck at the string, so 
as to extend its body hindward as much as possible, then stretch- 
ing its tail towards the egg, at the same time bending it to a lit- 
tle curve at the end; then steadying and stiffening the tail by the 
use of one hand, with which hand a gentle pushing movement 
was secured, and the egg was rolled in a curve, which was short- 
ened by the shortening or increased bending of the tail, and so 
the prize was brought within reach. To my mind there seems to 
have been but one view of the case possible to both animals. 
When the exigency first arose, it was to each one a new prob- 
lem, and had to receive from each an original solution. The 
monkey got at it by looping a string, and Nasua by curving the 
caudal extremity ; and, let it be noticed, each one used the im- 
Provised implement, so to speak, in his hand. In this way the 
one got the chestnuts, and the other got the egg. The point is 
that, whatever of intellectual force each might have inherited, 
each had to meet the exigency for himself, and in his own way. 
Coati and Cebus had each to rebus the riddle for himself. How- 
yg easy it might be afterwards to each, it was at first an inven- 
ion. 
And now, what of it all? It was not designed to inflict upon 
our friends a weary homily. We felt like stealing, as through a 
chink, a glance at the knowingness of the lower animal life. Surely 
there ig among them, as related to a psychology of their own, a 
true humor, if one could but get at it; and is it not worth the 
delving? This unfeeling humor of the cats and porpoises and 
seals; that dogged gravity, rollicking mirth, and filial bearing of 
the canine Dick ; the chattering sport, the grotesque fun, the utili- 
"an genius, and the discerning spirit of that “son of Cebide ; ” 
the flute-like cooing, harmless play, social disposition, and pa- 
