round on a drawing-room hearthrug before lying down, just as if it were in its ancestral home in the greenwood, the herbs of which needed thus treading down and pressing round, to make a comfortable bed.

Very funny is the tale cited from Miss Bramston about a certain archiepiscopal collie-dog, which had acquired a habit of hunting imaginary pigs every evening directly after family prayers. Mr. Romanes makes much of this, but really nothing could well be more simple or natural than the association of feelings and imaginations thereby implied. Indeed, the case may well be cited as a type of others, the explanation of which may seem, from a less complete knowledge of the circumstances, to present some difficulty. In this instance we are told that the collie had been formerly accustomed "to be sent to chase real pigs out of a field;" and, of course, the sound of the word "pigs," and the pleasurable action of running about after them, became associated in its imagination. We are then told, "It became a custom for Miss Benson to open the door for the collie after dinner in the evening, and say, 'Pigs!'" when he very naturally ran out, and ran about according to his previously-acquired habit. Soon this exercise became in its turn a matter of habit, and the phenomena attending the termination of dinner and of family prayers very naturally gave rise in the collie to an expectant feelingt of the door being opened for the accustomed pleasurable excitement. If the door was not opened, the habit being now well-established, the expectant feeling, always growing more and more vivid, + See "On Truth," p. 195.

* p. 56.

could hardly fail to elicit barks, tail-waggings, and movements towards the exceptionally unopened door, and the constantly accumulating excitement would surely lead it at last to run out and bark without waiting for the uttering of the word "Pigs"; nor is it in the least surprising to learn that the phenomena attending family prayers at Miss Bramston's house should arouse in the animal the same expectant feelings and therewith associated actions, which had become so ingrained during its residence at the Archbishop's.

Mr. Romanes gives us yet again the oft-told tale of the crows which "seem able to count." It is thus related,* after Leroy, by our author: When about to shoot the nests, in order "to deceive this suspicious bird, the plan was hit upon of sending two men into the watch-house, one of whom passed on while the other remained; but the crow counted and kept her distance. The next day three went, and again she perceived that only two returned. In fine it was found necessary to send five or six men to the watch house in order to put her out of her calculation."

But what wonder is there that a crow, seeing a man go beneath her nest with a gun, should keep clear till she had seen him go away; even if, for a time, he had hidden himself behind a bush? Why, then, should it be wondered at that the bird's mere sense-perception felt a difference between the visual picture presented by a group of three men and another presented by only two? The wonder rather is that the creature should not be more discriminative, as we always wonder that a

* p. 57.

bitch or a she-cat does not seem to miss a single pup or kitten which may have been taken away from the others in her litter.

Mr. Romanes naturally makes a great deal of the chimpanzee "Sally" at the Zoological Gardens, which, he tells us, has been taught "to count correctly as far as five." The result of our own investigation with regard to this ape was as follows :—

It is most true that the animal is finely gifted, and that it does separately pick up from the ground, place in its mouth, and then present in one bunch, two, three, four, or five straws, as may be demanded of it, or only one. It has distinctly associated the several sounds of these numbers with corresponding groups of picked-up straws. The ape will also, on command, pass a straw through a large or small hole in the fastening of its cage, or through a particular interspace of its wire netting. It will also put objects into its keeper's pocket, play various odd tricks with boy visitors, howl horribly when told to sing, and hold on its head pieces of apple, remaining perfectly quiescent till a particular expression is used. This last trick, however, is one of the commonest of those performed by pet dogs, and the putting of objects into the keeper's pocket is nothing remarkable. The passing of a straw through a special aperture on command would be more so, but for the fact that the basis of the whole superstructure of such tricks was laid by the animal itself (as the keeper told us), which had spontaneously taken to the trick of picking up a straw and passing it through a small hole near the keyhole of

*

the door of its cage. Having thus itself acquired a habit of picking up straws and passing them through a hole, there could be little difficulty in getting it to pass the straw through other holes, and not much in getting it to pick up more straws than one. That it should associate certain motions with the sound of certain words, is no more than dogs, pigs, and various other animals lower in the scale will accomplish.

There remains, then, as the single distinguishing peculiarity of this case, the association in the ape's imagination and consentience, of the words, one, two, three, four, or five, with the picking up, holding, and handing over a corresponding number of straws. This fact of association is, so far as we know, exceptional, and it is therefore very interesting. But it does not prove that the animal has any idea of these five numbers. -not, of course, as numbers †-but as so many separate things. The matter would be the same if the animal could discriminate up to ten or more. We know abundantly already that various animals may be made to associate very complex bodily movements with sounds,

* Possibly as a result of having seen a key put in and out of the keyhole.

†The idea of "number" implies comparison, with a simultaneous recognition of both distinctness and similarity; although, of course, it is not necessary that the fact of our having such apprehensions should be adverted to. No two things could be known to be two without an apprehension that while they are numerically distinct they can in some way be thought of as belonging to one class of entities. We could not say "pink" and "a high rate of interest" were two, unless it were two "thoughts." By so speaking of them we should unite them under one conception which is common to them both as two "ideas." As to this, see further, " On Truth," p. 241.

G

and to associate a repetition of the same movements more or less frequently with different sounds is an act of essentially the same kind as the former. That the thing seems at all marvellous is due to a trick of our own imagination. The words of command in this case are words which express for us the highly abstract idea of number; and our imagination having become connected therewith, we are apt to picture to ourselves a like connection in the cognitive faculty of the ape. But its presence there is by no means necessary to explain the action, while if such a highly abstract idea was present there, the animal would not allow us to long remain doubtful as to the fact. We particularly questioned its keeper whether the ape ever pointed to any object or used any gesture with the evident purpose of calling his attention to some fact or passing occurrence. Although he was evidently well disposed to extol the powers of his charge as far as truth would permit, he distinctly told us it did not do so. If any one came in with a gun the creature would show extreme terror, but "Sally" never pointed to it or by gesture called the keeper's own attention to the dreaded object. We could neither see nor hear of anything rendering it possible to attribute to this very interesting brute a psychical nature of a higher kind than that possessed by any other brutes. It appeared to us plainly to have only the same kind of powers with them, although they might be more developed in degree. But this, surely, is just what we should expect. The rational nature of man has been conferred only on an animal of a special kind, with a body resembling very closely that of an ape.