e following cases relating to dogs are described by Darwin: 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 was 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."[55]

It has often been said that no animal uses any tool, but this can be so
easily refuted on reflection, that it is hardly worth while considering;
for illustration, though, the chimpanzee in a state of nature cracks
nuts with a stone; Darwin saw a young orang put a stick in a crevice,
slip his hand to the other end, and use it in a proper manner as a
lever. The baboons in Abyssinia descend in troops from the mountains to
plunder fields, and when they meet troops of another species a fight
ensues. They commence by rolling great stones at their enemies, as they
often do when attacked with fire-arms.

The Duke of Argyll remarks that the fashioning of an implement for a
special purpose is absolutely peculiar to man; and he considers this
forms an immeasurable gulf between him and the brutes. "This is no
doubt," says Darwin, "a very important distinction; but there appears to
me much truth in Sir J. Lubbock's suggestion,[56] that when primeval man
first used flint-stones for any purpose, he would have accidentally
s