that in hastily unfolding it they got stung; after this
had once happened they always held the packet to their ears to detect
any movement within.

The following cases relate to dogs. Mr. Colquhoun winged two wild ducks,
which fell on the farther side of a stream; his retriever tried to bring
over both at once, but could not succeed; she then, though never before
known to ruffle a feather, deliberately killed one, brought over the
other, and returned for the dead bird. Colonel Hutchinson relates that
two partridges were shot at once, one being killed, the other wounded;
the latter ran away and was caught by the retriever, who on her return
came across the dead bird: "She stopped, evidently greatly puzzled, and
after one or two trials, finding she could not take it up without
permitting the escape of the winged bird, she considered a moment, then
deliberately murdered it by giving it a severe crunch, and afterward
brought away both together. This was the only known instance of her
ever having wilfully injured any game." Here we have reason, though not
quite perfect, for the retriever might have brought the wounded bird
first and then returned for the dead one, as in the case of the two
wild-ducks. I give the above cases as resting on the evidence of two
independent witnesses and because in both instances the retrievers,
after deliberation, broke through a habit which is inherited by them
(that of not killing the game retrieved), and because they show how
strong their reasoning faculty must have been to overcome a fixed habit.

I will conclude by quoting a remark by the illustrious Humboldt. "The
muleteers in South America say, 'I will not give you the mule whose step
is easiest, but _la mas racional_--the one that reasons best;'" and, as
he adds, "this popular expression, dictated by long experience, combats
the system of animated machines better perhaps than all the arguments of
speculative philosophy." Nevertheless some writers even yet deny that
the higher animals possess a trace of reason; and they endeavour to
explain away, by what appears to be mere verbiage, all such facts as
those above given.

It has, I think, now been shown that man and the higher animals,
especially the Primates, have some few instincts in common. All have the
same senses, intuitions, and sensations--similar passions, affections,
and emotions, even the more complex ones, such as jealousy, suspicion,
emulation, gratitude and magnanimity; they