Goats sometimes do very clever tricks, which almost prove them to be
capable of reasoning.
A goat and her kids frequented a square in which I once lived, and were
often fed by the servants and myself. Now and again I heard a thumping
at the hall door, which arose from the buttings of the goat when the
food was not forthcoming, and the mother's example was followed by her
two little kids. After a while this grew monotonous, and no attention
was paid to their knocking! but one day the area bell--used by the
delivery men and callers generally, the wire of which passed by the side
of one of the railings--was sounded. The cook answered the bell, but no
one was there save the goat and kids, with their heads bent down towards
the kitchen window. It was at first thought that some mischievous boy
had rung the bell for them, but they were watched, and the old goat was
seen to hook one of her horns into the wire and pull it. This is too
much like reason to be ascribed to mere instinct.
[Illustration: GOATS KNOCKING AT THE DOOR.]