rphosed into caves, form homes for
the jackals and large serpents of the plains. The Kaffirs of Africa use
them as vaults into which are thrown their dead. The aard vark
outrivals, with his great claws, the most skilled burrowing tools of
man. These animals are therefore rarely captured. It is not uncommon for
a horse to fall into their excavations and be killed.

Miners, excavators, and underground dwellers teach us the great lesson
that, while many of them sought the ground as a protection, and found
there many difficulties to overcome, they not only have won in the great
struggle of life but have so skilfully adapted themselves to their
environment and surroundings as to become entire masters, even artists,
in their methods of living.

VI

ANIMAL MATHEMATICIANS

_"But what a thoughtless animal is man,--
How very active in his own trepan!"_

--PRIOR.

Among the special senses of animals none seems more human than their
knowledge of mathematics. A recognition of this quality in animals is
encouraging because the new scientists are earnestly trying to build up
a true knowledge of animal behaviour by studying them in the light of
the new psychology. This will fill the place of the vast amount of
misinformation which those skilled only in book-knowledge, without
really knowing the ways of Nature, have builded. It will also record all
the strange and curious facts about animals and their ways without
insisting too much on rigid explanation. These new scientists are far
different from their predecessors who tried to explain everything they
did not understand about an animal's behaviour in terms of the scanty
information gained by studying a few museum specimens. We might as well
attempt to explain human nature from the study of an Egyptian mummy. The
new method is simply to give the facts about an animal, and frankly
admit that in many cases, such as are found in their knowledge of
counting and numbers, we must leave complete explanation to the future
when we shall have a greater fund of scientific data on which to base
our conclusions.

It is an established fact that some animals can count, and that they
have the faculty of close observation and keen discrimination. They
learn to count quickly, but they do not fully appreciate the value of
numerical rotation. Most of the arithmetical feats of trained animals
are hoaxes regulated by their sense of smell, sight, touch and taste.
But no one doubts thei