Evening star., 1896-12-19
BRUTE ARITHMETICIANS.
.Aampie Showing That the Dumb
Animals Know Something Of Number,

BRUTE ARITHMETICIaNS.
example Showing That the DumI,
Animals Know Something of Number.
FROM Our Animal Friends
one oay the celebrated ornithologist Au-
oupon came out of his cottage with four of
Ills irlends to go for walk. The next in
stant they saw parrot fly in at window
AUDUBON and one of his friends returned
indoors, and Immediately the bird flew out
IN fright and went circlins about over
head. Audubon came out again, but the
piro refused to re-enter until the other gen
tieman mad also left the house. 1t SEEM
ed TO remember that two persons had gone
In and only one mad come out Curious to
discover how far the parrot could count, he
returned indoors with his four friends and
made them go out, one at a time, while he
nimself remained inside. In few minutes
the bird flew In again. Il was evident that
its powers OF arithmetic ended at the num-
Der four.
A Russian DOCTOR named Timofieff. tried
the same sort Of experiment, a few years
ago with birds, cats, dogs and horses. He
declared that the crow is capable CT count
ing as far as ten, and Is in that respect
superior to many tribes of men in Poly
nesla, who comprehend hardly anything of
mathematics. DR.. Timoiieff's account of
the behavior of his own dog is amusing.
hiS uoS never pulled several DOneS IN one
spot but always hid each one away sep
arately. One day his master presented him
with twenty-six large bones. which he i'm
mediately proceeded 20 bury in twenty-six
different places On the morrow DR.. Timo-
ieff did not feed the animal at all. In the
afternoon he let his pet out into the garden,
and from window watched him attentive
ly. The dog set to work at once and dug up
ten of the bones. Then he stopped. SEEM
ed to reflect for moment, and began dig
ging again until he had found nine others.
Here he stopped to consider as before, and
then returned to work. scratching persever-
ingly until he had unearthed six more
bones. This seemed to satisfy him. He sat
down and began his dinner. Suddenly he
raised his head stopped eating, and looked
around with a thoughtful air. Then, as If
quite sure that he had forgotten something.
he started up, trotted around the garden,
found the twenty-sixth bone. and returned
with look of satisfaction to his meal. The
doctor believed that the number twenty
six was too much for the canine mind to
grasp, and that the dog had therefore di-
vided the provender into three groups,
counting the bones In each lot separately
but that the mental process was SO compli-
Gated that he made miscalcuation, and
only rectified it after reflection.
The same writer tells us that the cat is
less expert in arithmetic than the dog, not
being capable of counting further than six.
He used to hold piece of meat to his cat S
nose and draw 1t away suddenly always
repeating the action five times before allow
ing the animal to take the morsel. Puss
soon grew accustomed to the performance,
and waited with dignity and camness until
the sixth offer was made, when she sprang
up and seized the piece of meat with her
teeth.
For some weeks the doctor repeated this
experiment. and the cat did not make a
single mistake When, however, he tried
to increase her knowledge by making four
more approaches and retreats before letting
her take the meat. she lost the count COM
pletely and jumped at the wrong moment.
Proofs of the horses power of counting
are even more curious DR.. Timofieff men,
tionS peasants horse which, when work
ing, invariably stopped to rest after the
twentieth furrow. 1t did not matter how
long the field happened 10 be- nor how
tired the animal might feel it never stop
ped until the twentieth furrow had been
made, and so exact was the count that the
farmer could tell the number of burrows
by noting how many times the horse had
halted.
In another village there was horse which
reckoned distances by posts and knew
what hour 1t was by the striking of the
clock. DR.. Timofief was driving from one
town to another. and at the twenty-second
verst two-thirds of mile) one of the
horses stopped suddenly. The driver got
down from his seat and gave the animal a
measure of oats. at the same time explain
ing to the passenger that the horse was
accustomed to being fed after every twen-
ty-fifth verst. This time it had made a
mistake, but it could not be blamed, as IL
did not judge of the distance traversed by
it's own fatigue or hunger, but by counting
the verst posts along the road. 1t had mis-
taken for some Of these posts three others
which greatly resembled them but which
merely served to mark the boundary of the
state forest.
The same horse was always fed in the
stable at noon, and DR.. Timofieff himself
observed that whenever neighboring
church clock began to strike the animal
raised Its head and listened attentively.
When the strokes were less than twelve ii
put down its head sadly, but it displayed
every sign of joyful expectation when it
heard twelve strokes, and knew that din
ner time had arrived. p,