Birds and All Nature, Vol. 4, No. 5, November 1898: Illustrated by Color PhotographyVarious
History
Birds and All Nature, Vol. 4, No. 5, November 1898: Illustrated by Color Photography
Various
Birds -- Periodicals; Natural history -- Periodicals
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 attention 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withdrawn five times in succession; the sixth time she was permitted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 figures, 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 passing the eighteenth
post. To test him they put up three false mile-posts between 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
receiving his oats precisely at noon. Whenever 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 number 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.
BUTTERFLIES LOVE TO DRINK.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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