640 Recent Studies in [November, 
common outside a small market-town came regularly into 
the principal street, early in the morning after the fortnightly 
market-day, to pick up the corn which was scattered from 
the sample bags. It might be suggested that they were 
made aware of the market-day by the unusual bustle on the 
roads, or that they were attracted by the smell of the corn. 
Accident supplied the experimentum crucis. A day of national 
humiliation was appointed on the day when the market 
would have been held in the ordinary course of things. 
There was no traffic on the roads, and no corn to be scented ; 
yet the geese made their usual appearance the next morning. 
This fa< 5 t proves that these “ stupid” birds can mark inter- 
vals of time, 
Mr. H. L. Jenkins, speaking of the elephant, states in a 
private communication to the author : — “ There are good 
reasons for supposing that elephants possess abstract ideas; 
for instance, I think it is impossible to doubt that they ac- 
quire, through their own experience, notions of hardness 
apd weight. The grounds on which I am led to think thus 
are as follows; a captured elephant, after he has been 
taught his ordinary duty, is taught to pick up things from 
the ground and give them to his mahout sitting upon his 
shoulders. For the first few months it is dangerous to re- 
quire him to pick up anything but soft articles, because the 
things are often handed up with considerable force. After a 
time they appear to take in a knowledge of the nature of the 
things they are required to lift, and the bundle of clothes 
will be thrown up sharply as before, but heavy things — such 
as a crowbar or a piece of iron chain — will be handed up in 
a gentle manner ; a sharp knife will be picked up by its 
handle, and placed on the elephant’s head, so that the 
mahout can also take it ty the handle. I have purposely 
given elephants things to lift which they could never have 
seen before, and they were all handled in such a manner as 
to convince me that they recognised such qualities as hard- 
ness, sharpness, and weight.” 
Mr. Peal observed a young recently-captured elephant, in 
Assam, pulling up and breaking some bamboo stakes, and 
carefully examining the pieces. “At last it seized one firmly 
in its trunk, and, advancing its left fore leg, passed the frag- 
ment of bamboo under the arm-pit, and began to scratch 
with some force. A large elephant leech soon fell to the 
ground, which, from its position, could not easily be detached 
without this scraper which had been deliberately made by 
the elephant.” The narrator very truly says that these 
scrapers are bond fide tools, “ intelligently made for a 
