DO ANIMALS THINK AND REFLCT? 



for mistakes of this sort, and they had learned 

 through ages of experience to blend the nest with 

 its surroundings, by the use of moss, the better to 

 conceal it. My phoebe brought her moss to the new 

 timbers of the porch, where it had precisely the 

 opposite effect to what it had under the gray mossy 

 rocks. 



I was amused at the case of a robin that recently 

 came to my knowledge. The bird built its nest in 

 the south end of a rude shed that covered a table at 

 a railroad terminus upon which a locomotive was 

 frequently turned. When her end of the shed was 

 turned to the north she built another nest in the 

 temporary south end, and as the reversal of the 

 shed ends continued from day to day, she soon had 

 two nests with two sets of eggs. When I last heard 

 from her, she was consistently sitting on that par- 

 ticular nest which happened to be for the time be- 

 ing in the end of the shed facing toward the south. 

 The bewildered bird evidently had had no experi- 

 ence with the tricks of turn-tables ! 



An intelligent man once told me that crabs could 

 reason, and this was his proof : In hunting for crabs 

 in shallow water, he found one that had just cast 

 its shell, but the crab put up just as brave a fight 

 as ever, though of course it was powerless to inflict 

 any pain; as soon as the creature found that its 

 bluff game did not work, it offered no further re- 

 sistance. Now I should as soon say a wasp rea- 

 169 



