CHAPTER XII.

UNSOLVED PROBLEMS IN THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE LOWER ANIMALS.

We have seen, or have yet to see, how many of the doings of animals, formerly ascribed to instinct, are really attributable to reason or intelligence, to observation and reflection; but there are many other phenomena connected with their habits which at present we cannot explain satisfactorily. To ascribe such phenomena to instinct is merely to confess our ignorance by the use of a term that has in such a case no definite signification, that has for ages been applied to phenomena that belong to the province of reason. The use of such a term in such a context is mischievous, as constituting an obstacle to scientific investigation.

It is much better to relegate all such puzzling faculties or phenomena simply to the category of the unexplained, so that special attention may be drawn towards them and may lead to their experimental investigation. It is quite possible that it may be necessary further to relegate certain of these faculties or phenomena to the category of the inexplicable. We may never be able to explain them satisfactorily on the theory either of reason or instinct. But, on the other hand, the probability is that due investigation will enable us to remove the majority of such problems from the category of the unexplained or even the apparently inexplicable to that of those that admit of satisfactory explanation, as being determined by, or dependent upon, ordinary intelligence or instinct. It may be that we have to look for missing links in the chain of evidence, or that we have simply to exclude by experimental tests certain suggested explanations, and so gradually limit the issue.

Possible solutions of the problems in question have from time to time been offered by ingenious, imaginative men. Such suggestions are not to be despised or rejected until at least they have been rigorously applied by competent experimentalists to the facts. The suggestions alluded to, that are applicable, or that have been applied, to different cases, include the following: that

1. The lower animals use their senses in ways unknown to man; their senses, moreover, though the same in kind with his, being much more acute or delicate. The special senses involved are smell, vision, and hearing.

2. Certain animals, and perhaps man himself, possess additional or supplementary senses, such as a sixth sense of direction, locality, way-finding or homing, or of polarity— an intuitive knowledge of the points of the compass.

3. The lower animals, or certain of them, are susceptible to various influences that do not affect man.

4. There may be much unconscious observation on the part of the animals, unnoticed observation on the part of man. This may include, for instance, attention to the position of the sun, the noticing of landmarks and their topographical relations.

5. Unknown faculties, instincts, or susceptibilities may exist.

6. Powers or capacities that are usually latent may be, as Bishop Butler suggests, called into action.

One of the commonest and best illustrations of phenomena at present or as yet unexplained is the way- or homefinding by the dog, horse, ass, cat, and other animals over ground previously unvisited by and therefore unknown to them. I am leaving out of view all cases in which, by any possibility, memory or observation could have been, or probably were, operative—for instance, in the flights of courier or carrier pigeons and refer only to those numerous cases in which various pet animals have been taken by masters or mistresses long distances from home by routes previously untraversed, in conveyances varying extremely in their character, and have found their own way home by a different route, usually the shortest and most direct, equally unknown to them, and

generally on foot where land alone had to be traversed. Authentic instances, incidents, or anecdotes of this kind are simply innumerable. Here it is desirable to refer only to a few, as illustrating their varying character in detail.

1. A collie (dog) found its way home by itself from Calcutta to Inverkeithing (Fifeshire, Scotland). It had come from Calcutta in a ship bound for Dundee, and from Dundee in a collier bound for Inverkeithing (Wood).

2. Certain French bees having been sent abroad in order to their acclimatisation in a French colony, found their way home in French vessels (Pierquin).

3. A dog was taken, by the most different modes of conveyance, including country roads and city streets (walking), market boat, railway, and steamer, from Holywell (Wales) to Manchester. It found its way back in a couple of days, performing part of its journey in the dark (Wood).

4. A fox twice found its way on foot from Westmoreland to Kent (Jesse).

5. A King Charles spaniel made its way from Lincolnshire to the Isle of Wight (Jesse).

In all such cases the presumable motive is attachment to and memory of locality or person, home love, perhaps home sickness. It has to be remarked that the animals usually credited with the possession of the homing or way-finding faculty are those that are domesticated, which show, on the one hand, the strongest attachment to home and master, and on the other the greatest general intelligence. But, whatever it be, the motive must be strong, for the peril and fatigue involved are usually great, and starvation, exposure, exhaustion, and death frequently result from the effort.

Accepting the facts as narrated, it would be easy to speculate to an unlimited and unprofitable extent as to how, for instance, the Scotch collie came to select the proper vessels to bear it to Scotland and to Inverkeithing. It is quite credible that the dog should have recognised the language of its master as spoken by Scotch sailors, for we know full well that shepherds' dogs and other dogs are acquainted with human words and phrases and their meanings; but it by no means follows that what is credible actually occurred,

nor would the supposition that this particular collie recognised Scotch as contrasted with Hindoo words help us far in the explanation of all the phenomena of its remarkable journey. We should still have to account for its discriminating between a Scotch- and English-bound vessel, and even were we to assume that it shipped itself accidentally in a vessel for Dundee, we must still explain how it came to select another vessel bound for Inverkeithing.

One of the most remarkable forms of way-finding by animals is their frequently taking a direct course homewards from any given point. From the bee's habit of doing so in returning to its hive after honey-collecting, such a straight homeward course is usually spoken of as a bee line. Frogs make bee lines for food or water; horses do the same for their favourite pasturages, and they take the straightest route back when they have been led or driven circuitously from home (Houzeau). There are certain other forms of way-finding that are as insusceptible of explanation as those already described-for instance-

1. In the dark, or in snow-storms.

2. In dangerous or trackless localities.

3. In the din and confusion of battle or of the battlefield.

Mules in dark mines know and find alone, unaided, their respective working places. Not only so, but, as in so many other cases, man's presence and attempted direction serves simply to mislead and annoy the more sagacious and trustworthy 'lower' animal. The leader of Eskimo dog-teams finds his way through blinding snow (Parry). The horse and mule show their superiority in some respects to their riders by way-finding in dangerous Alpine or other paths, where it is usually the best policy to leave them to their own guidance, their own observation, judgment, and discretion. (Farley). They may be trusted to find their way when their rider is ignorant of the road, has lost his way, deviated from some scarce perceptible track, or is incapable of directing the animal's movements-when, for instance, he is drunk and has fallen off, or has been shot off in battle. Another puzzling form of way-finding is connected with the discovery

by pet dogs of their masters' bodies among the slain after or during battle--as at Sedan or Waterloo (Animal World ').

It must be obvious that all the forms of way-finding above mentioned are not precisely of the same class or character. In certain cases the route may have been, or certainly had been, previously travelled, as in the case of the Eskimo dog leader, that finds its way in blinding snow only when it has formerly traversed the same route; or the animal may, and obviously does, make use of its senses, such as scent, as well as of its intelligence, observation, and memory; but in other cases of previously untraversed land and sea, and of great distances, the numerous discussions that have been recorded in Nature' and elsewhere as to the parts respectively played by a sixth sense, or by smell and vision, show that it cannot be said that any satisfactory solution of the problem has yet been offered and accepted.

In studying the interesting subject of way-finding in other animals it is important to enquire how far such a power occurs in man, and what is its nature if and when it is displayed by him. In the first place, then, many savage races are known to possess a power-not enjoyed by the civilised white man-of way-finding over trackless prairies and through pathless woods. The red men of North America are good instances of such prairie trackers, and the Australian blacks of bush way-finders. In both cases, just as it is also among the lower animals, the faculty in question has been popularly regarded as an instinct (Watson). As regards the North American Indians and their path-finding through the forests of Canada and New Brunswick, Dr. Adams points out that they are guided by observation-for instance, of

1. The direction of the bent or fall of trees.

2. The position of their lichen-coating-both of which show the prevalent winds.

3. The course of streams.

4. A certain amount of star knowledge.

In other words, according to him, their faculty, knowledge, or skill is simply the result of observation and experience. Unfortunately, it is said that so useful a faculty is usually