nor scratch with his hind foot; when this part itches, he goes to another
horse, and gently bites him in the part which he wishes to be bitten, which
is immediately done by his intelligent friend. I once observed a young foal
thus bite its large mother, who did not choose to drop the grass she had in
her mouth, and rubbed her nose against the foal's neck instead of biting
it; which evinces that she knew the design of her progeny, and was not
governed by a necessary instinct to bite where she was bitten.

Many of our shrubs, which would otherwise afford an agreeable food to
horses, are armed with thorns or prickles, which secure them from those
animals; as the holly, hawthorn, gooseberry, gorse. In the extensive
moorlands of Staffordshire, the horses have learnt to stamp upon a
gorse-bush with one of their fore-feet for a minute together, and when the
points are broken, they eat it without injury. The horses in the new forest
in Hampshire are affirmed to do the same by Mr. Gilpin. Forest Scenery, II.
251, and 112. Which is an art other horses in the fertile parts of the
country do not possess, and prick their mouths till they bleed, if they are
induced by hunger or caprice to attempt eating gorse.

Swine have a sense of touch as well as of smell at the end of their nose,
which they use as a hand, both to root up the soil, and to turn over and
examine objects of food, somewhat like the proboscis of an elephant. As
they require shelter from the cold in this climate, they have learnt to
collect straw in their mouths to make their nest, when the wind blows cold;
and to call their companions by repeated cries to assist in the work, and
add to their warmth by their numerous bedfellows. Hence these animals,
which are esteemed so unclean, have also learned never to befoul their
dens, where they have liberty, with their own excrement; an art, which cows
and horses, which have open hovels to run into, have never acquired. I have
observed great sagacity in swine; but the short lives we allow them, and