Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1893-11-18

ANIMALS AS ARlTHMgTlclANs.
crows Can Count Up to Fen aud One
Horse Did Twice as Welt


A Russian physician has been max.
ing some curious experiments to lind
out how far animals can count. He
declares that The crow can count no TO
ten, ami is thereby superior In arith-
metic TO certain Polynesian tribes of
men who cannot get beyond five or
six. The doctor had Il dog, which was
accustomed 10 bury the bones IL found,
each one in "a separate place in the
garden. One day, wishing to test the
animals power of counting, the mas
Ter gave it no less than twentv-six
bones, which were buried one after
another in special hiding places. The
next day the dog was given no more
bones. and he was forced to dig up the
old ones. Without hesitation he un-
Covered ten and then came to 4 stop.
After whining and running about as
u in a state Of great perplexity a new
idea seemed TO enter the canine brain
aud again the dog began dig upthe hid
den bones, this time adding nine To
the total before his memory again
failed him. Then there was a second
period Of whining and perplexity, after
which the seven remaining bones were
found with some difficulty. The doc
tor concluded from this that twenty
six was too large a number for the dog
to take all at once. and that he had
been obliged TO remember the bones
r. it were. in three shorter series. The
cat. il would seem. is even less an
arIthmetician than the dog. not being
able 10 count as far as ten. Before
giving his cat his regular piece Of
meat the doctor would put ii under
the animals nose and then Withdraw
u five times in succession, and it was
only the sixth time that he would give
the cat the morsel. The number was
repeated every day until the cat be-
came perfectly accustomed TO waiting
five times, but would spring forward
Of it's own accord at tho sixth presenta-
ton. Having thus demonstrated that
pussy was able 10 remember up TO six.
the doctor tried to seven, but without
success. As soon as he attempted to
perform the experiment with higher
numbers the cat became confused and
would jump forward for the meat at
the wrong time. The number six.
A4ltt tDAiit Ettlli ~ Ut kAC IL
of this cats power OF counting.
Not less Interesting were similar ex-
periments with horses. In the village
of Pekoe. the doctor found a peasants
horse which was used tor blowing, and
which had acquired the habit of count
ing the burrows and stopping for a rest
regularly at the twentieth. SO conf
dent vas the plowman of the accuracy
OF his horses calculations that at the
end of the day he used to estimate the
amount of work done, not by counting
the burrows himself, but by simply re.
membering the number of times his
horse had stopped TO rest. In another
village the doctor found a horse which
was able to count the mile posts along
the way and which had been trained
by its master TO stop for feed when
ever they bad covered twenty-five
verstes. One day they tried the horse
over a road where three false mile
posts had been put up in between real
ones, and, SURE enough, the horse, de-
ceived by this trick, stopped for his
oats Mt the end Of the twenty-five
verstes instead of going the usual
twenty-five. The same horse was ac-
customed to being fed every day at
the stroke of noon. The doctor OBJ
served that whenever the clock struck
any hour the horse would stop and
prick up his ears as if counting. II
he heard twelve he would trot off con-
tentedly to be fed. but il there were
fewer strokes than twelve he would 90
on working resignedly. The expert
ment was made Of striking twelve
strokes at the wrong time, w%hereupon
the horse started for his oats in spite
oN the fact thai, he had been fed an
MIR before. This shows hat a little
knowledge may be bad for horses As
well as for men.