Reasoning of Arctic Foxes.
By Waverley
DESIRING to obtain some Arctic foxes, Dr. Rae set various kinds of traps, but as the foxes knew these traps from previous experience, he was unsuccessful. Accordingly, he set a trap with which foxes in that part of the country are not familiar. This consisted of a loaded gun set upon a stand, pointing at the bait. A string connected the trigger of the gun with the bait, so that when the fox seized the bait he discharged the gun, and thus committed suicide. In this arrangement the gun was separated from the bait by a distance of about twenty yards, and the string which connected the trigger with the bait was concealed throughout nearly its whole distance in the snow. The gun-trap thus set was successful in killing one fox, but not in killing a second, for the foxes afterward adopted either of two devices whereby to share the bait without injuring themselves. One of these devices was to bite through the string at its exposed part near the trigger, and the other device was to burrow up to the bait through the snow, at right angles to the line of fire, so that, although in this way they discharged the gun, they escaped without injury—the bait being pulled below the line of fire, before the string was drawn sufficiently tight to discharge the gun. Now, both of these devices exhibited a wonderful degree of what, I think, must fairly be called the power of reasoning. I have carefully interrogated Dr. Rae on all the circumstances of the case, and he tells me that in that part of the world traps are never set with strings, so that there could have been no special association in the foxes' minds between strings and traps. Moreover, after the death of fox No. 1., the tracks on the snow showed that fox No. 2., notwithstanding the temptations offered by the bait, had expended a great deal of scientific observation on the gun before he undertook to sever the cord. Lastly, with regard to burrowing at right angles to the line of fire, Dr. Rae and a friend in whom he has confidence, observed the fact a sufficient number of times to satisfy themselves that the direction of the burrowing was really to be attributed to thought and not to chance.—Waverley.