[20]

(21

Chapt. I

succeed in bringing over both at once; & she then deliberately, though never before known to ruffle a feather, deliberately killed the one, brought over the wounded bird, & returned for the dead one. Col. Hutchinson relates that two partridges were shot at once; one being killed & the other wounded; the latter ran away & was caught by the retriever, who on her return came across the dead bird; "she stopped, evidently greatly puzzled; &, after one or two trials, finding she could not take it up without permitting the escape of the winged bird, she considered a moment, then deliberately murdered it, by giving it a severe crunch, & afterwards brought away both together. This was the only known instance of her ever having wilfully injured any game." In this case we see the action of reasoning, but the action of reason, though not quite perfectly carried out, for the retriever might first have brought the wounded bird & then then returned for the dead one, as in the case of the two wild-ducks.

[slip of paper pasted on in the hand of Ebenezer Norman, CUL-DAR157.21:]

The muleteers in S. America, as Humboldt remarks, * say "I will not give you the mule whose step is easiest, but la mas racional.— the one that reasons best;" and Humboldt *(11) he adds, "this popular expression, dictated by long experience, combats the system of animated machines, better perhaps than all the arguments of speculative physiology. philosophy."