interest and doubt. My doubts were bred from knowledge of the
difficulty of judging the intelligence of an animal from a stage
performance. So-called educated horses and even educated seals and
fleas have made their appeal in large number to the credulity of
the public. Can any animal below man be educated in the proper
sense of the word? Or is the animal mind susceptible of nothing
more than a mechanical training, and only given the specious
counterfeit of an educated intelligence when under the direct
control of the trainer?

"Since that day I have seen Peter in five public performances,
have tested him at my psychological clinic and privately on three
occasions. I now believe that in a very real sense the animal is
himself giving the stage performance. He knows what he is doing,
he delights in it, he varies it from time to time, he understands
the succession of tricks which are being called for, he is guided
by word of mouth without any signal open or concealed, and the
function of his trainer is exercised mainly to steady and control.

"I am prepared to accept the statement of his trainers, Mr. and
Mrs. McArdle, that Peter's proficiency is not so much the result
of training as of downright self-education."

Peter was put through many of the tests which Dr. Witmer uses for
the study of backward children. He performed many of these tests
in a very satisfactory manner. He was able to string beads the
first time he tried it. He put pegs in the ordinary kindergarten
pegging board. He opened and closed a very difficult lock. He used
hammer and screw driver, and distinguished without any mistake
between nails and screws. A peculiar kind of hammer was given to