Russia says, can be taught, if you have 
the patience, to count up to ten, while 
a certain tribe of men in Polynesia, 
"higher" animals, you know, cannot be 
taught to count beyond five or six. 
This same doctor had an intelligent 
Dog which was accustomed, like other 
Dogs, to bury his surplus bones in the 
garden. In order to test the mental 
powers of this animal the doctor one day 
gave him no less than twenty-six bones, 
every one of which he saw the Dog 
duly bury in separate places. The next 
day no food was given him at meal 
time, but he was commanded by his 
master to dig up the bones. This the 
intelligent fellow proceeded to do, but 
after uncovering ten came to a full 
stop. After whining and running 
about in great perplexity he finally 
succeeded in unearthing nine more. 
Still he seemed conscious that he had 
not found the full number and kept up 
the search till he had fetched to his 
master the other seven. 
I think that was too much to ask of 
any Dog, don't you? Many a little boy 
or girl who goes to school couldn't 
count that number of bones, though 
you can, of course. 
Well, the doctor then turned his at- 
tention to the Cat. When pussy was 
good and hungry a tempting morsel of 
meat was held under her nose, then 
withdrawn five times in succession; the 
sixth time she was permitted to secure 
it. This was repeated every day, till 
she got accustomed to waiting for the 
presentation of the meat five times; but 
upon the sixth Pussy never failed to 
spring forward and seize the meat. 
The doctor attempted the experiment 
with a higher number, but the Cat 
stuck to her first lesson and after 
counting one, two, three, four, five, 
six, would invariably make the spring. 
Had he begun with ten Pussy might 
have shown herself capable of counting 
that number as well as the Crow and 
the Parrot. 
A farmer tells of a Horse which in 
plowing had acquired the habit of 
counting the furrows, stopping for a 
rest regularly at the twentieth row. 
The farmer at the end of the day used 
to estimate the amount of work done, 
not by counting the furrows but by 
remembering how many times the 
Horse had stopped to rest. The poor 
animal had never been taught his fig- 
ures, and his mind did not say "one, 
two, three," and so on, but all the same 
he had his way of counting, and never 
failed to know when he had reached 
twenty. 
Still another Horse was able to count 
the mile-posts and had been trained by 
its master to stop for feed when they 
had covered eighteen miles of a certain 
road. He always stopped after pass- 
ing the eighteenth post. To test him 
they put up three false' mile-posts be- 
tween the real ones, and, sure enough, 
deceived by the trick, he stopped at the 
eighteenth post for his oats, unaware 
that he had not covered eighteen miles. 
The doctor also observed another 
Horse which was accustomed to receiv- 
ing his oats precisely at noon. When- 
ever the clock struck an hour the Horse 
pricked up his ears as if counting the 
strokes. If he heard twelve, off he 
would trot to be fed, but if a less num- 
ber he would plod on resignedly at his 
work. The experiment was made of 
striking twelve strokes at the wrong 
time, whereupon the Horse started for 
his oats though he had been fed only 
an hour before. 
All of which goes to prove that the 
capacity of an animal's mind is limited, 
and, so you may say, is that of the 
average man. 
Mrs. E. K. Marble. 
181 
