Cases showing the
limitations of mammalian intelligence are interesting in this
connection. A cat which wished to look out and find the cause of a
noise outside, when all the windows were closed by wooden blinds,
jumped upon a stand and looked into a mirror. Her inference as to
the general use of glass was correct; all its uses had not yet come
within the range of her experience. A monkey used to stop a hole in
the side of a cage with straw. The keeper, to tease him, used to
pull this out. But one day the monkey tugged at a nail in the side
of his cage until he had pulled it out, and thrust it into the hole.
But when it was pushed back he fell into a rage. His inference that
the nail-head could not be pulled through was entirely correct; he
had failed to foresee that it could be pushed back. Many such
instances have probably come within the range of your observation,
if you have noticed them. But many of the facts which Mr. Romanes
gives us concerning the intelligence of monkeys, apes, and baboons
would not disgrace the intelligence of children or men.
Mr. Romanes relates the following account of a little capuchin
monkey from Brazil:
"To-day he obtained possession of a hearth-brush, one of the kind
which has the handle screwed into the brush. He soon found the
way to unscrew the handle, and having done that he immediately
began to try to find out the way to screw it in again.
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