490 The American Naturalist. [June, 



which she will defend it from injury or danger, it is almost 

 impossible to admire too highly, the reasoning powers, the 

 self-control, and the intelligent comprehension of words by 

 this mother, under circumstances which would severely try 

 all these qualities in a human parent. It is well-known that 

 elephants patiently, and even gratefully endure painful opera- 

 tions performed on their own persons, such as the cutting 

 open and dressing of deep ulcers, and the dropping of nitric 

 acid in the eye. Yet the same animal would deeply resent 

 the slightest intentional injury, such as the prick of a pin, 

 and would lose no opportunity of revenge. 



The account of the extraordinary intelligence shown by 

 the trained elephant " Siribeddi " in the capture of wild 

 elephants, is too long to be given here but will richly repay 

 perusal. [Animal Intelligence, p. 402]. Her comprehension 

 of everything required of her; her original ideas of what 

 should be done on the spur of the moment ; her intense 

 enjoyment of the sport ; her Delilah-like duplicity towards her 

 male captives; her extreme care to avoid injuring the 

 prisoners ; all show an intelligence not below that of a human 

 hunter, whilst in her care to avoid injuring her captives, she 

 puts the human hunter to shame. 



In the parrot, low as it is in the psychological scale, com- 

 pared to the higher mammals, we have examples of the com- 

 prehension of words uttered by the animal itself. Mr. Darwin 

 gives an instance of a parrot belonging to the father of 

 Admiral Sir J. Sullivan, which invariably called certain 

 persons of the household, as well as visitors, by their names. 

 He said " good morning " to everyone at breakfast, and " good 

 night" to each as they left the room at night, and never 

 reversed their salutations. To his master he used to add to 

 the " good morning " a short sentence, never repeated after his 

 master's death. He scolded a parrot which had got out of its 

 cage and was eating apples on the kitchen table, calling it 

 " you naughty Polly." Similar instances of the proper appli- 

 cation of spoken words could be indefinitely multiplied, but I 

 will only quote the account given by Dr. Samuel Wilkes 



