The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1892-06-30
MEMORY IN ANIMALS.
They Never Forget the Trap or Gun
that Once injured Them.

They Never Forget the Trap or Cur
that Once injured Them.
From the Vienna Stein Weisen.
The proof that experience is the guide
| of life among the lower animals may be
| found very low in the scale of animal or
! ganisms. The RAZOR shell, or mollusk
soon as the tide retreats, buries itself in
the sand, often to the depth of several
feet. The fishermen who hunt them use
a long, thin iron rod, hooked at the end,
or they sprinkle a little salt in the hole
to drive out its occupant. This general
ly succeeds; there is a movement in the
sand, and half the creature appears on
the surface. With quick movement
the fishermen tries to seize him. if this
fails, the mollusk vanishes into its hole,
and all the Establishments of the fishers
art would fail to tempt him out a second
time-the mollusk has profted by ex>
perience.
Similar conduct of animals which can
not be regarded as other than the result
of experience may be noted among the
most diverse species.
A fox that has once been caught in a
trap, and fortunately regained his free
dom, will profit by the experience and
beware of traps in future; the same is
true of many other animals, and the
birds also. Quail which have once been
netted by the allurement of the ''call, /" if
no
allured by it again. Every hunter is
familiar with the fact that it is much
easier to outWit a young animal than an
experienced one
Bortase tells a very interesting story
of how lobster got the better of an oys
ter. The lobster several times inserted
his claws in the half-opened shell, but
the oyster always closed in time to save
himself The lobster then seized stone
and inserted it quickly into the cautious
ly opened shell and devoured the oyster.
Monkeys secure oysters by the same
trick, but there is nothing SO remarka-
BILE in that, as their intelligence is well
known. Kirby tells Of the bees, that
upon their store they build sort of bull
wark of wax about the hole of entrance
to keep him out. Duges observed spi-
der which had seized bee from behind,
and thus hindered it from flying. The
stronger bee, however, had its legs free,
and walked off with the spider, which
tried to drag her into his den. The strug
gle lasted some time, when the spider
lowered itself with its prey by thread.
The bees legs were useless in mid air,
and the spider chung to her until he had
accomplished his full purpose.
1t is impossible to argue that these are
exceptions, which afford no proof of a
general intellectual capacity of animals.
Every such experience is individual, and
from the circumstances of its origin, can
not extend to the species. We must con-
cede, too, that, even among animals,
there are individuals much more highly
gifted than the general run of the spe>
cies. Innumerabie instances are seen
among horses, dogs, elephants and mon
keys, to deny the fact would be to de-
ny the capacity of animals for further de-
velopment. The possibilities of such ad-
vance are, Of course. limited, but SO, also,
is the possibility of human advance, ais
though the boundary line is not yet in
sight.
The higher animals are much more
ready to meet exceptional exigencies
than the lower, both because their ca>
pacities are greater and because they
have been more highly developed by a
wide range of experiences.