218 Biological Controversy and its Laws . [April, 
execution. They are even not altogether unable to deal 
with pure abstractions. Let us take a significant, though 
very simple, case. Suppose a man required to carry two 
boxes, not heavy, but too bulky to be conveniently grasped 
at once. A “ happy thought ” strikes him ; he examines 
them, compares their sizes, finds that one can be conveni- 
ently nested within the other, and completes his task with 
ease. This case, simple as it is, manifestly involves reason. 
Nay, most of our readers will have met with men who, when 
they encounter some such difficulty, seem incapable of de- 
vising any expedient to escape it. What, then, must we 
say of the dog referred to in the following case ? — One of 
the most unmistakable examples of dog-reason I can call to 
mind is that of a Newfoundland dog sent across a stream to 
fetch a couple of hats, whilst his master and a friend had 
gone on some distance. The dog went after them, and the 
gentlemen saw him attempt to carry both hats, and fail, for 
the two were too much for him. Presently he paused in his 
endeavour, took a careful survey of the hats, discovered 
that one was larger than the other, put the small one in the 
larger, and took the latter in his teeth by the brim.” * Or, 
again, suppose that a savage observes game frequenting a 
certain track in a forest. A suitable locality suggests to him 
the possibility of catching them by a stratagem. He makes 
an experiment to test the practicability of the scheme, and 
feeling satisfied on this score, puts it in successful operation. 
Were such a case narrated it would be at once accepted as 
a proof of reason in the savage, and might be made the 
subject of much sensational comment. Yet here is the very 
aCtion performed not by “ a man and a brother,” but by a 
fox : — “ On coming home from shooting I observed, at some 
distance, a fox jumping continually up to a trunk of a tree 
of a middling height, holding something in his mouth. On 
examination I saw it to be a branch of a considerable size. 
Anxious to learn the reason I laid myself quietly down. In 
a very short time the fox laid down the branch and sat down 
on the trunk, prepared for a jump. Soon after I heard the 
approach of a family of wild pigs, which after some time 
were quite near to the stump. At the moment when they 
passed the fox, he jumped down on one of the young pigs, 
and returned with it to his elevated perch, preparing himself 
to begin a fat breakfast quite careless of the impotent anger 
of the wild sow.”t With the man who can venture to refer 
* Shirley Hibberd, Clever Dogs, &c. 
f Zoologist, p. 1365, 
