Wood River times. [volume] (Hailey, Idaho) 1882-1915, 1893-12-08
ANIMALS CAN COUNT.
Crows the Most Accomplished Arith.
mettcians and Dogs are Next.

mettClauS ana dogs are NcAC.
A Russian physician has been making
some curious experiences to find out now
far animals can count. He declares that
the crow can count up to ten, ana IS
thereby superior in arithmetic to certain
Polynesian tribes of men who cannot get
beyond five or six.
The doctor had dog, which was &C
oustomed to bury the bones it found,
each one IN separate place in the gar
len. Ono day, wishing to test the
animals power of counting, the master
gave it no less than twentysix bones.
which were all 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 any hesitation he recovered ten
and then came to a stop.
After whining and running about as
if in a state of great perplexity new
idea seemed to enter the canine brain,
and again the dog began to dig up the
hidden bones, this time adding nine to
the total before his memory again failed
him. Then there was second period
of whining and perplexity, after which
the seven remaining bones we're found
with some difficulty.
The doctor concluded from this that
twenty-six was too large number for
the dog to take in all at once, and that
he had been obliged to remember the
bones, as it were. in three shorter series.
The cat, it would seem, is even less than
an arithmetician than the dog. not being
able to count as far as ten
Before giving his cat its regular piece
of meat the doctor would put it under
the animals nose and then withdraw it
five times in succession, and it was only
the sixth time that he would give the
cat the morsel. This number was re-
pcated every day until the cot became
perfectly accustomed to waiting five
times. but would spring forward of its
own accord at the sixth presentation
Having thus demonstrated that pussy
was able to remember up to six, the
doctor tried to seven, but without sue
cess As soon as he attempted to per-
form the experiment with higher num-
bers the cat became confused and would
jump forward for the meat at the wrong
time. The number six, therefore, would
seem to be the limit of this cats power
of counting.
Not less interesting were similar cx-
periments with horses. In the village of
Pckoe, the doctor found peasants horse
which was used for ploughing, and
which had acquired the habit of count
ing the burrows and stopping for rest
regularly at the twentieth. So confident
was the ploughman 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 fur
rows himself, but by simply remember
ing the number of times his horse had |
stopped to rest.
In another village the doctor found !
horse which could count the mile posts
along the way and which had been
trained by his master to stop for feed |
whenever they had covered twenty-five
verstes. One day they tried the horse ,
over a road where three false mile posts
had been put up in between the real ones.
and sure enough, the horse, deceived bv
this trick, stopped for his oats at the end
of twcntyverstes instead of going tho
usual twenty five.
The saIe horse was accustomed to
being fed every day at the stroke of
noon. The doctor observed that when
ever the clock struck any hour the horse
would stop and prick up his ears as if
counting. II he heard twelve he would
trot of contentedly to be fed, but if there
were fewer strokes than twelve he would
go on working resignedIy. The expert
ment was made of striking twelve strokes
ut the wrong time, whcrcupon the horse
started for his oats in spite of the fact
that he had been fed an hour before.
This shows lite knowledge may be bad
FOR horses as well as for men.-rNcw
York Telegram.