428 
ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE. 
question. It will be observed that it is much the same 
as that which is displayed under similar circumstances 
by rats and wolverines, in which animals w T e have already 
considered it. In all these cases the intelligence dis- 
played must justly be deemed to be of a very remarkable 
order. For, inasmuch as traps are not things to be met 
with in nature, hereditary experience cannot be supposed 
to have played any part in the formation of special 
instincts to avoid the dangers arising from traps, and 
therefore the astonishing devices by which these dangers 
are avoided can only be attributed to observation, coupled 
w T ith intelligent investigation of a remarkably high cha- 
racter. 
I extract the following from Couch’s 4 Illustrations of 
Instinct ’ (p. 175): — 
Whenever a cat is tempted by the bait, and caught in a fox- 
trap, .Reynard is at hand to devour the bait and the cat too, and 
fearlessly approaches an instrument which the fox must know 
cannot then do it any harm. Let us compare with this bold- 
ness the incredible caution w T ith which the animal proceeds 
when tempted by the bait in a set trap. Dietrich aus dem 
Winkell had once the good fortune of observing, on a winter 
evening, a fox which for many preceding days had been allured 
with loop baits, and as often as it ate one ib sat comfortably 
down, wagging its brush. The nearer it approached the trap, 
the longer did it hesitate to take the baits, and the oftener did it 
make the tour round the catching-place. When arrived near 
the trap it squatted down, and eyed the bait for ten minutes at 
least ; whereupon it ran three or four times round the trap, 
then ir stretched out one of its fore-paws after the bait, but did 
not touch it ; again a pause, during which the fox stared im- 
movably at the bait. At last, as if in despair, the animal made 
a rush and was caught by the neck. (Mag. Nat. Hist., N. S., 
vol. i., p. 512.) 
In c Nature,’ vol. xxi., p. 1 32, Mr. Crehore, writing from 
Boston, says : — 
Some years since, while hunting in Northern Michigan, I 
tried with the aid of a professional trapper to entrap a fox who 
made nightly visits to a spot where the entrails of a deer had 
been thrown. Although we tried every expedient that sug- 
gested itself to us we were unsuccessful, and, what seemed very 
