Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1897-01-14
AKIrHMErlo OF ANIMALS.
Examples which Indicate That rour-is

1sAhnpies Whtcn Indicate That Four-leE-
ged Pets Havs the Faculty OF Counting.
One day the celebrated ornithologist Au-
dubon came out of his cottage with four
OF his friends to go for walk, says AMI
mai Friends. The next instant they saw
a parrot fly in at the window. Audubon
and one of his friends returned indoors,
and Immediately the bird flew out in n
fright, and went clrcling about overhead.
Audubon came out again, but the bird re-
fused to re-enter until the other gentle
man had also left the house. 1t seemed
to remember that two persons had gone in
and only one had come out. Curious 40
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 himself remained inside. In a
few minutes the bird flew in again. 1t
was evident that its powers of arithmetic
ended at the number four,
Russian doctor named Timoficff tried
the same sort of experiment few years
ago with birds, cats, dogs and horses. He
declared that the crow is capable of count
ing as far AZ ten. and is in that respect
superior to many tribes of men in Polyne-
STA, who comprehend hardly anything of
mathematics. Doctor Timoiieff's account
of the behavior of his own dog is amusing.
This dog never buried several bones in one
spot but always hid each one away sepa-
rately. One day his master presented him
with twcnty-siX large bones, which he i'm
mcdiatcly proceeded to bury in twenty-six
different places. On the morrow Doctor
Timotieif did not feed the animal ut all.
In the afternoon he let his pet out into the
garden and from n window watched him
attentively. The dog set to work at once
and dug up ten of the bones. Then he
stopped. seemed TO reflect Tor n minute,
and began digging again until he had
found nine others. Here he stopped to
consider rs before. and then returned to
work, scratching persrvcringly 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 thoughtful air. Then, as if quite
sure he had forgotten something, he start
cd up. trottcd round the garden, found the
twenty-siXth bono, and returned, with a
look of satisfaction. 10 his meal, The doc
tor believed that the number twenty-six
was too much for the canine mind TO
grasp, and thai the dog had therefore d.
vidcd the nr0vcudcr into three groups,
| counting tho bones in each lot separately,
hut that the mental process was 80 COM
| plicaicd that hc had made a miscalcula-
| tion and only rcctilied il after prolonged
| reflection.
Tho same writcr tells MS that the cat is
| less expert in arithmetic than the dog,
not being capable of counting farther than
six. He used to hold piece of meat to
his cats nose and draw it away suddenly,
always repeating the action five times be-
fore allowing the animal to take the mor-
| sci. fuss soon grew accustomed TO the
performance, and waited with dignity and
calmness 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 let
| ting her take the meat, she lost the count
completely and jumped at the wrong mo-
| ment.
Proofs of the horses power of counting
| are even more curious, DIR. Timofieff
mentions peasants horse, which, when
blowing, invariably stopped to rest after
the twentieth furrow. 1t did not matter
how long the field happened to he, nor how
tired the animal might feel, il 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 a horse
which reckoned distances by posts. and
knew what hour it was by the striking of
the clock. DIR. Timofeif was driving from
one town to another. and at the twenty
second verst (two-thirds Of milel one Of
the horses stopped suddenly. The driver
got down from his seat and gave the ami
NAL measure of oats, Mt the same time
explaining to the passenger that the horse
was accustomed to heing fed after every
twenty-fifth verst, This time it had made
a mistake, but it could not be blamed, us
it did not Judge of the distance traversed
by its own fatigue or hunger but by count
ing the yerst posts along the road. 1t had
mistaken for some of these posts three
others which greatly rcsembled them, but
which merely served to mark the boun-
Diary Of the State forest
This same horse was always fed in the
stable at noon, and DIR. Timofieff himself
observed that whenever a neighboring
church clock began to strike, the animal
raised its head and listened attentively.
When the strokes were less than twelve, it
put down its head sadly, but it displayed
every sign of joyful expectation when it
heard twelve strokes, and knew that din
! nor time had arrived,