21 AUGUST 1909, Page 20

DO ANIMALS REASON ?

(To THE EDITOR OF TEl ^SFICTAT011.1 SIR,—Mr. E. S. Robertson's letter in the Spectator of June 26th reminds me of a little rough mongrel terrier I once had. She would beg for food ; but would also sit up and beg at the foot of a tree up which she had chased a squirrel or a monkey. I saw her do this on any number of occasions ; and years of negative results had apparently no power to teach her that the case of a squirrel up a tree was not on all-fours with that of a biscuit on a tea-table. Now, did her begging for squirrels and monkeys indicate reasoning power or a total