The San Mateo item. (San Mateo City, Putnam County, Fla) 189?-19??, 1909-08-21


TIoN AMONG ANIMALS" IN CENTURY.
Most observers OF initiative action
expect an animal to watch. to get
the idea Immediately. and to inn!
tate what II has seen. Almost In
variably they are disappointed, for
this apparently is not the way of
animals. But the real error consists
in concluding, because OF the absence
Of immediate imitation, that the iml
tative tendency is not present or that
It does not play an important part in
the life of the animal. Even certain
types OF voluntary imitation may
have as their necessary condition the
witnessing of an act many times as
it is performed by another individ'
ual. The lesson which Er Berry's
experiment teaches is that we mus:
not be in too great haste in our
tests of imitation.
The second OF the experiments 10
which / would specially call attention
is the one called Learning 10 catch
mice" Despite its commonplace char
acter, 1t yielded results which are
certain to arouse widespread interest,
discussion and investigation. Brief
ly stated, the experiment consisted
in placing each OF the kittens in turn
in a large cage with a mouse In or
der to discover whether they would
ly-"instinctively," most peo'
pie would say, catch, kill and eat
mice, or whether, instead, they would
have to learn to do these things. AL
most any one, suspect, would have
predicted the speedy exhaustion or
our supply OF mice, for most OF us
have a strong belief in the instinc'
tive nature of a cats behavior to.
ward mice and rats. But that Is pre-
cisely what did not happen.
The mouse experiment was not be.
gun until the kittens were i've months
old, and had attained a size and
strength sufficient 10 enable them TO
kill even a large mouse. 1t Is rea-
sOnably certain-and this is an ex'
tremely important point-that none OF
the kittens had ever caught a mouse
previous to the experiments. As DR..
Berry's description OF the behavior
OF the kittens when they were first
brought into the presence OF a mouse
Is intensely interesting, shall at
tempt to summarize II.
When placed in the cage with n
large black mouse. kitten cautious
ly smelled OF II. Then, as the mouse
ran away, the kitten ran after II and
struck at II with her paw. Although
the two were left together in the
cage for an hour, not once did u
growl or strike the mouse with her
claws. At the end OF the hour the
mouse was removed from the cage
Similarly each OF the 9th.
err kittens was left I'm the cage for
an hour with the same mouse. They |
played with II much as they ordin-
arily played with objects which NOV
ed when touched. but they made no
efforts to injure II. Thus In this initial
experiment not one OF the three kit |
tens gave any evidence OF an instinc. |
i've tendency TO catch, kill and eat /
nice.
Six weeks later each OF the kit. |
ems was again placed In the cage |
With mouse for from fifteen 10 TWEEN.
" minutes. In some cases the play |
With a little rougher and more vlgor-
nus than previously. but the mouse
was not killed. This result Is tho |
more interesting In view OF the fact
hat the kittens had not been fed for
Il least twenty-four hours before the
experiment..
At this point tuition was introduced