Abstract
STORIES of animal intelligence are interesting, and they are of value in considering the relations between habit and instinct, and the question of reasoning power, when they can be trusted. But accurate observers are few, and sentiment often causes a simple fact to be buried in anthropomorphic imaginings, so that stories have to be taken cum grano, and the identity of the writer must be known before their scientific value can be appraised. We must, therefore, demur to the author's remark that “the bird and other stories in the present volume … have a distinct scientific as well as a literary value. They are not merely good reading, but the record of important facts in Natural History.” Many of the letters are, however, anonymous, and they have been reprinted without asking permission of the writers. No man of science would have the temerity to cite irresponsible anecdotes from a collection got together in this way, as evidence of animal intelligence. The stories are no doubt entertaining, but the less that is said about their scientific value the better will naturalists be pleased.
Cat and Bird Stories.
From the Spectator, with an introduction by John St. Loe Strachey. Pp. xiii + 279. (London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1896.)
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Cat and Bird Stories. Nature 55, 100 (1896). https://doi.org/10.1038/055100a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/055100a0