Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1902-03-28
ABOUT ANIMAL PSYCHOLOGY.
Questions Suggested by the Habits of
Raccoons.

Questions Suggested by the Habits of
Raccoons.
animal psychology is to be studied,
1 see, In Paris" said an obseryant citi-
zen yesterday, "and the scientists are
going to take the subject up In sys-
tematic way That Is good plan. 1t
is a broad field, and research along
these lines will no doubt be productive
of much interesting data. Heretofore
what scientists have said along this
line and in fact all they have learned,
has been of theoretical nature. and 1t
may be said that animal psychology
has not passed beyond the purely ex-
perimental stage.
Darwin came nearer formulating an
exact hypothesis than any other scien-
fist when he took up the study of the
emotions and the means of expressing
them, but even this splendid treatise Is
lacking In that definite data which
the so-called exact sciences. But 1t has
occurred to me that a busy bustling
center of population, where one may
find so much that Is artificial, so much
that Is out of harmony with the nat
ural order of things, would not be the
place to prosecute in an intelligent and
satisfactory way study of this inter-
esting subject. Surroundings a trfle
more rugged would seem to afford
better opportunity for the observance
of mental processes In the lower order
of life, although. of course, much may
be learned by the method which has
been adopted by European scientists.
'In the southern part of the United
States these scientists might find much
data that would give them a more
definite clew to the reasoning meth
DDS OF animals of the lower order That
little trick of the opossum. for instance,
when he feigns death. shows an ele-
ment of shrewdness which one rarely
finds In orders of intelligence supposed
ly higher. Take the raccoon. Why Is
1t that he will leap up on one side of a
tree and then jump as far as he can
from the other side? 1t Is trick. He
is trying to fool the dog that is after
him by making him believe he Is up
the tree. The coon has practised this
game for so long that no well-trained
dog will ever howl up a tree until he
has elrcled around it several times to
see IL the game has not resorted to the
usual make-believe.
why Is it that coon, when. the
10 fnl no OFF % In,
hunters ak, will scamper down the
trunk of the tree toward the stump?
He has two reasons for doing IT. In
the first place, unless the dog knows
his business, he will rush out in the
direction of the falling tree. believing
the game will scamper out from the
top. In the second place. he reasons
that 1t is safer for body and limb In
either event he Is reasoning about the
thing. 1t is a psychological process.
Instances have been reported by lHint-
ers of where 'coons would leap from
the top of falling trees, seemingly
knowing that they were pursued by
trained dogs, who would hang around
the stump until they could scamper
down the trunk of the tree. But the
rule is the other way.
"The point | am trying to make" con-
cluded the observant citizen, according
to the New Orleans Times Democrat,
''is that the woods are filed. with these
evidences which might give the scen-
lists clew to the reasoning methods
of animals Of the lower order"