The following instance of animal intelligence is sent to us by Dr. John Rae, F.R.S., who states that the Mr. William Sinclair mentioned is respectable and trustworthy. The anecdote is taken from the 'Orkney Herald' of May 11:—"A well-authenticated and extraordinary case of the sagacity of the Shetland pony has just come under our notice. A year or two ago Mr. William Sinclair, pupil-teacher, Holm, imported one of these little animals from Shetland on which to ride to and from school, his residence being at a considerable distance from the school buildings. Up to that time the animal had been unshod, but some time afterwards Mr. Sinclair had it shod by Mr. Pratt, the parish blacksmith. The other day Mr. Pratt, whose smithy is a long distance from Mr. Sinclair's house, saw the pony, without halter or anything upon it, walking up to where he was working. Thinking the animal had strayed from home, he drove it off, throwing stones after the beast to make it run homewards. This had the desired effect for a short time; but Mr. Pratt had only got fairly at work once more in the smithy when the pony's head again made its appearance at the door. On proceeding a second time outside to drive the pony away, Mr. Pratt, with a blacksmith's instinct, took a look at the pony's feet, when he observed that one of its shoes had been lost. Having made a shoe he put it on, and then waited to see what the animal would do. For a moment it looked at the blacksmith as if asking whether he was done, then pawed once or twice to see if the newly-shod foot was comfortable, and finally gave a pleased neigh, erected its head, and started homewards at a brisk trot. The owner was also exceedingly surprised to find the animal at home completely shod the same evening, and it was only on calling at the smithy some days afterwards that he learned the full extent of his pony's sagacity."
In 'Nature,' also (vol. xx., p. 21), Mr. Claypole, of Antioch Cottage, Ohio, writes as follows:—
A friend of mine is employed on a farm near Toronto, Ontario, where a horse, belonging to the wife of the farmer, is never required to work, but is allowed to live the life of a gentleman, for the following reason. Some years ago the lady above mentioned fell off a plank bridge into a stream when the water was deep. The horse, which was feeding in a field close by, ran to the spot, and held her up with his teeth till assistance arrived, thus probably saving her life. Was this reason or instinct?
Mr. Strickland, also writing to 'Nature' (vol. xix., p. 410), says:—
A mare here had her first foal when she was ten or twelve years old. She was blind of one eye. The result was, she frequently trod upon the foal or knocked it over when it happened to be on the blind side of her, in consequence of which the foal died when it was three or four months old. The next year she had another foal, and we fully expected the result would be the same. But no; from the day it was born she never moved in the stall without looking round to see where the foal was, and she never trod upon it or injured it in any way. You see that reason did not teach her that she was killing her first foal; her care for the second was the result of memory, imagination, and thought after the foal was dead, and before the next one was born. The only difference that I can see between the reasoning power of men and animals is that the latter is applied only to the very limited space of providing for their bodily wants, whereas that of men embraces a vast amount of other objects besides this.
Houzeau (vol. ii., p. 207) says that the mules used in the tramways at New Orleans prove that they are able to count five; for they have to make five journeys from one end of the tramway to the other before they are released, and they make four of these journeys without showing that they expect to be released, but bray at the end of the fifth. This observation, however, requires to be confirmed, for unless carefully made we must suppose that the fact may be due to the mules seeing the ostler waiting to take them out.
Mr. Samuel Goodbehere, solicitor, writes me from Birmingham the following instance as having fallen under his own observation:—
We had a Welsh cob pony or Galloway about 14 hands high, who was occasionally kept in a shed (in a farmyard), partly closed at the front by a gate which was secured by a bolt inside and a drop latch outside. The pony (who was able to put his head and neck over the gate, but could not reach the outside latch) was constantly found loose in the yard, which was considered quite a mystery until it was solved one day by my observing the pony first pushing back the inside bolt, and then neighing until a donkey, who had the run of the yard and an adjoining paddock, came and pushed up the outside latch with his nose, thus letting the pony at liberty, when the two marched off together.
The following is the only instance that I have met with in any of the horse tribe of that degree of sagacity which leads to the intentional concealment of wrong-doing. In the case of elephants, dogs, and monkeys we find abundant evidence on this head, which therefore renders the following instance more antecedently credible, and, as it is also narrated on good authority, I do not hesitate to quote it.
Professor Niphon, of Washington University, St. Louis, U.S., says:—