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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Minds and Manners of Wild Animals
+by William T. Hornaday
+
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+
+Title: The Minds and Manners of Wild Animals
+
+Author: William T. Hornaday
+
+Release Date: July, 2004 [EBook #6052]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on October 28, 2002]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WILD ANIMALS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Ralph Zimmermann, Charles Franks
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration with caption: OVERPOWERING CURIOSITY OF A MOUNTAIN SHEEP
+This "lava ram" stood thus on a lava crest in the Pinacate Mountains
+for about twenty minutes, gazing spellbound at two men and a pack mule.
+(See page 149)]
+
+
+
+
+THE MINDS AND MANNERS OF WILD ANIMALS
+
+A BOOK OF PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS
+
+BY WILLIAM T. HORNADAY, Sc.D., A.M. DIRECTOR OF THE NEW YORK
+ZOOLOGICAL PARK. AUTHOR OF "THE AMERICAN NATURAL HISTORY," "TWO
+YEARS IN THE JUNGLE," "CAMP FIRES IN THE CANADIAN ROCKIES," "OUR
+VANISHING WILD LIFE," ETC.
+
+WITH ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+_The wild animal must think, or die._* * * * *
+
+_"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good."_
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY WILLIAM T. HORNADAY
+
+Printed in the United States of America
+
+_The right of translation is reserved_
+
+Published May, 1922
+
+
+
+
+TO THE OFFICERS AND MEN OF THE NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL PARK, WHOSE SAFETY
+DEPENDS UPON THEIR KNOWLEDGE OF THE MINDS OF WILD ANIMALS, THIS VOLUME
+IS DEDICATED AS A TOKEN OF APPRECIATION AND REGARD
+
+
+
+
+ CONTENTS
+
+
+ I. A SURVEY OF THE FIELD
+
+
+     I. THE LAY OF THE LAND
+    II. WILD ANIMAL TEMPERAMENT & INDIVIDUALITY
+   III. THE LANGUAGE OF ANIMALS
+    IV. THE MOST INTELLIGENT ANIMALS
+     V. THE RIGHTS OF WILD ANIMALS
+
+
+ II. MENTAL TRAITS OF WILD ANIMALS
+
+
+    VI. THE BRIGHTEST MINDS AMONG ANIMALS
+   VII. KEEN BIRDS AND DULL MEN
+  VIII. THE MENTAL STATUS OF THE ORANG-UTAN
+    IX. THE MAN-LIKENESS OF THE CHIMPANZEE
+     X. THE TRUE MENTAL STATUS OF THE GORILLA
+    XI. THE MIND OF THE ELEPHANT
+   XII. THE MENTAL AND MORAL TRAITS OF BEARS
+  XIII. MENTAL TRAITS OF A FEW RUMINANTS
+   XIV. MENTAL TRAITS OF A FEW RODENTS
+    XV. THE MENTAL TRAITS OF BIRDS
+   XVI. THE WISDOM OF THE SERPENT
+  XVII. THE TRAINING OF WILD ANIMALS
+
+
+ III. THE HIGHER PASSIONS
+
+
+ XVIII. THE MORALS OF WILD ANIMALS
+   XIX. THE LAWS OF THE FLOCKS AND HERDS
+    XX. PLAYS AND PASTIMES OF WILD ANIMALS
+   XXI. COURAGE IN WILD ANIMALS
+
+
+ IV. THE BASER PASSIONS
+
+
+  XXII. FEAR AS A RULING PASSION
+ XXIII. FIGHTING AMONG WILD ANIMALS
+  XXIV. WILD ANIMAL CRIMINALS AND CRIME
+   XXV. FIGHTING WITH WILD ANIMALS
+
+
+THE CURTAIN.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+During these days of ceaseless conflict, anxiety and unrest among
+men, when at times it begins to look as if "the Caucasian" really is
+"played out," perhaps the English-reading world will turn with a sigh
+of relief to the contemplation of wild animals. At all events, the
+author has found this diversion in his favorite field mentally
+agreeable and refreshing.
+
+In comparison with some of the alleged men who now are cursing this
+earth by their baneful presence, the so-called "lower animals" do not
+seem so very "low" after all! As a friend of the animals, this is a
+very proper time in which to compare them with men. Furthermore, if
+thinking men and women desire to know the leading facts concerning the
+intelligence of wild animals, it will be well to consider them now,
+before the bravest and the best of the wild creatures of the earth go
+down and out under the merciless and inexorable steam roller that we
+call Civilization.
+
+The intelligence and the ways of wild animals are large subjects.
+Concerning them I do not offer this volume as an all-in-all production.
+Out of the great mass of interesting things that might
+have been included, I have endeavored to select and set forth only
+enough to make a good series of sample exhibits, without involving the
+general reader in a hopelessly large collection of details. The most
+serious question has been: What shall be left out?
+
+Mr. A. R. Spofford, first Librarian of Congress, used to declare that
+"Books are made from books"; but I call the reader to bear witness that
+this volume is not a mass of quotations. A quoted authority often can
+be disputed, and for this reason the author has found considerable
+satisfaction in relying chiefly upon his own testimony.
+
+Because I always desire to know the _opinions_ of men who are
+writing upon their own observations, I have felt free to express my own
+conclusions regarding the many phases of animal intelligence as their
+manifestation has impressed me in close-up observations.
+
+I have purposely avoided all temptations to discuss the minds and
+manners of domestic animals, partly because that is by itself a large
+subject, and partly because their minds have been so greatly influenced
+by long and close association with man. The domestic mammals and birds
+deserve independent treatment.
+
+A great many stories of occurrences have been written into this
+volume, for the purpose of giving the reader all the facts in
+order that he may form his own opinions of the animal mentality
+displayed.
+
+Most sincerely do I wish that the boys and girls of America, and of the
+whole world, may be induced to believe that _the most interesting
+thing about a wild animal is its mind and its reasoning,_ and that a
+dead animal is only a poor decaying thing. If the feet of the young men
+would run more to seeing and studying the wild creatures and less to
+the killing of them, some of the world's valuable species might escape
+being swept away tomorrow, or the day after.
+
+The author gratefully acknowledges his indebtedness to Munsey's
+Magazine, McClure's Magazine and the Sunday Magazine Syndicate for
+permission to copy herein various portions of his chapters from those
+publications.
+
+W. T. H.
+
+The Anchorage, Stamford, Conn. December 19, 1921.
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+ Overpowering Curiosity of a Mountain Sheep
+ Christmas at the Primates' House
+ The Trap-Door Spider's Door and Burrow
+ Hanging Nest of the Baltimore Oriole Great
+ Hanging Nests of the Crested Cacique
+ "Rajah," the Actor Orang-Utan
+ Thumb-Print of an Orang-Utan
+ The Lever That Our Orang-Utan Invented
+ Portrait of a High-Caste Chimpanzee
+ The Gorilla With the Wonderful Mind
+ Tame Elephants Assisting in Tying a Wild Captive
+ Wild Bears Quickly Recognize
+ Protection Alaskan Brown Bear,
+ "Ivan," Begging for Food
+ The Mystery of Death
+ The Steady-Nerved and Courageous Mountain Goat
+ Fortress of an Arizona Pack-Rat
+ Wild Chipmunks Respond to Man's Protection
+ An Opossum Feigning Death
+ Migration of the Golden Plover. (Map)
+ Remarkable Village Nests of the Sociable Weaver Bird
+ Spotted Bower-Bird, at Work on Its Unfinished Bower Hawk-Proof
+ Nest of a Cactus Wren
+ A Peace Conference With an Arizona Rattlesnake
+ Work Elephant Dragging a Hewn Timber The Wrestling Bear,
+ "Christian," and His Partner
+ Adult Bears at Play
+ Primitive Penguins on the Antarctic Continent, Unafraid of Man
+ Richard W. Rock and His Buffalo Murderer
+ "Black Beauty" Murdering "Apache"
+
+
+
+
+THE MINDS AND MANNERS OF WILD ANIMALS
+
+MAN AND THE WILD ANIMALS
+
+
+If every man devoted to his affairs, and to the affairs of his
+city and state, the same measure of intelligence and honest industry
+that every warm-blooded wild animal devotes to its affairs, the people
+of this world would abound in good health, prosperity, peace and
+happiness.
+
+To assume that every wild beast and bird is a sacred creature,
+peacefully dwelling in an earthly paradise, is a mistake. They
+have their wisdom and their folly, their joys and their sorrows,
+their trials and tribulations.
+
+As the alleged lord of creation, it is man's duty to know the wild
+animals truly as they are, in order to enjoy them to the utmost, to
+utilize them sensibly and fairly, and to give them a square deal.
+
+
+
+
+I. A SURVEY OF THE FIELD
+
+I
+
+THE LAY OF THE LAND
+
+
+There is a vast field of fascinating human interest, lying only just
+outside our doors, which as yet has been but little explored. It is the
+Field of Animal Intelligence.
+
+Of all the kinds of interest attaching to the study of the world's
+wild animals, there are none that surpass the study of their minds,
+their morals, and the acts that they perform as the results of their
+mental processes.
+
+In these pages, the term "animal" is not used in its most common
+and most restricted sense. It is intended to apply not only to
+quadrupeds, but also to all the vertebrate forms,--mammals,
+birds, reptiles, amphibians and fishes.
+
+For observation and study, the whole vast world of living
+creatures is ours, throughout all zones and all lands. It is not
+ours to flout, to abuse, or to exterminate as we please. While for
+practical reasons we do not here address ourselves to the
+invertebrates, nor even to the sea-rovers, we can not keep them
+out of the background of our thoughts. The living world is so vast
+and so varied, so beautiful and so ugly, so delightful and so
+terrible, so interesting and so commonplace, that each step we
+make through it reveals things different and previously unknown.
+
+The Frame of Mind. To the inquirer who enters the field of animal
+thought with an open mind, and free from the trammels of egotism
+and fear regarding man's place in nature, this study will prove an
+endless succession of surprises and delights. In behalf of the
+utmost tale of results, the inquirer should summon to his aid his
+rules of evidence, his common sense, his love of fair play, and
+the inexorable logic of his youthful geometry.
+
+And now let us clear away a few weeds from the entrance to our
+field, and reveal its cornerstones and boundary lines. To a
+correct understanding of any subject a correct point of view is
+absolutely essential.
+
+In a commonplace and desultory way man has been mildly interested
+in the intelligence of animals for at least 30,000 years. The Cro-
+Magnons of that far time possessed real artistic talent, and on
+the smooth stone walls and ceilings of the caves of France they
+drew many wonderful pictures of mammoths, European bison, wild
+cattle, rhinoceroses and other animals of their period. Ever since
+man took unto himself certain tractable wild animals, and made
+perpetual thralls of the horse, the dog, the cat, the cattle,
+sheep, goats and swine, he has noted their intelligent ways. Ever
+since the first caveman began to hunt wild beasts and slay them
+with clubs and stones, the two warring forces have been interested
+in each other, but for about 25,000 years I think that the wild
+beasts knew about as much of man's intelligence as men knew of
+theirs.
+
+I leave to those who are interested in history the task of
+revealing the date, or the period, when scholarly men first began
+to pay serious attention to the animal mind.
+
+In 1895 when Mr. George J. Romanes, of London, published his
+excellent work on "Animal Intelligence," on one of its first pages
+he blithely brushed aside as of little account all the
+observations, articles and papers on his subject that had been
+published previous to that time. Now mark how swiftly history can
+repeat itself, and also bring retribution.
+
+In 1910 there arose in the United States of America a group of
+professional college-and-university animal psychologists who set
+up the study of "animal behavior." They did this so seriously, and
+so determinedly, that one of the first acts of two of them
+consisted in joyously brushing aside as of no account whatever,
+and quite beneath serious consideration, everything that had been
+seen, done and said previous to the rise of their group, and the
+laboratory Problem Box. In view of what this group has
+accomplished since 1910, with their "problem boxes," their "mazes"
+and their millions of "trials by error," expressed in solid pages
+of figures, the world of animal lovers is entitled to smile
+tolerantly upon the cheerful assumptions of ten years ago.
+
+But let it not at any time be assumed that we are destitute of
+problem boxes; for the author has two of his own! One is called
+the Great Outdoors, and the other is named the New York Zoological
+Park. The first has been in use sixty years, the latter twenty-two
+years. Both are today in good working order, but the former is not
+quite as good as new.
+
+A Preachment to the Student. In studying the wild-animal mind,
+the boundary line between Reality and Dreamland is mighty easy to
+cross. He who easily yields to seductive reasoning, and the call
+of the wild imagination, soon will become a dreamer of dreams and
+a seer of visions of things that never occurred. The temptation to
+place upon the simple acts of animals the most complex and far-
+fetched interpretations is a trap ever ready for the feet of the
+unwary. It is better to see nothing than to see a lot of things
+that are not true.
+
+In the study of animals, we have long insisted that _to the open
+eye and the thinking brain, truth is stranger than fiction._
+But Truth does not always wear her heart upon her sleeve for
+zanies to peck at. Unfortunately there are millions of men who go
+through the world looking at animals, but not seeing them.
+
+Beware of setting up for wild animals impossible mental and moral
+standards. The student must not deceive himself by overestimating
+mental values. If an estimate must be made, make it under the mark
+of truth rather than above it. While avoiding the folly of
+idealism, we also must shun the ways of the narrow mind, and the
+eyes that refuse to see the truth. Wild animals are not superhuman
+demigods of wisdom; but neither are they idiots, unable to reason
+from cause to effect along the simple lines that vitally affect
+their existence.
+
+Brain-owning wild animals are not mere machines of flesh and
+blood, set agoing by the accident of birth, and running for life
+on the narrow-gauge railway of Heredity. They are not "Machines in
+Fur and Feathers," as one naturalist once tried to make the world
+believe them to be. Some animals have more intelligence than some
+men; and some have far better morals.
+
+What Constitutes Evidence. The best evidence regarding the ways of
+wild animals is one's own eye-witness testimony. Not all second-
+hand observations are entirely accurate. Many persons do not know
+how to observe; and at times some are deceived by their own eyes
+or ears. It is a sad fact that both those organs are easily
+deceived. The student who is in doubt regarding the composition of
+evidence will do well to spend a few days in court listening to
+the trial of an important and hotly contested case. In collecting
+real evidence, all is not gold that glitters.
+
+Many a mind misinterprets the thing seen, sometimes innocently,
+and again wantonly. The nature fakir is always on the alert to see
+wonderful phenomena in wild life, about which to write; and by
+preference he places the most strained and marvellous
+interpretation upon the animal act. Beware of the man who always
+sees marvellous things in animals, for he is a dangerous guide.
+There is one man who claims to have seen in his few days in the
+woods more wonders than all the older American naturalists and
+sportsmen have seen added together.
+
+Now, Nature does not assemble all her wonderful phenomena and hold
+them in leash to be turned loose precisely when the great Observer
+of Wonders spends his day in the woods. Wise men always suspect
+the man who sees too many marvelous things.
+
+The Relative Value of Witnesses. It is due that a word should be
+said regarding "expert testimony" in the case of the wild animal.
+Some dust has been raised in this field by men posing as
+authorities on wild animal psychology, whose observations of the
+world's wild animals have been confined to the chipmunks,
+squirrels, weasels, foxes, rabbits, and birds dwelling within a
+small circle surrounding some particular woodland house. In
+another class other men have devoted heavy scientific labors to
+laboratory observations on white rats, domestic rabbits, cats,
+dogs, sparrows, turtles and newts as the handpicked exponents of
+the intelligence of the animals of the world!
+
+Alas! for the human sense of Proportion!
+
+Fancy an ethnologist studying the Eskimo, the Dog-Rib Indian, the
+Bushman, the Aino and the Papuan, and then proceeding to write
+conclusively "On the Intelligence of the Human Race."
+
+The proper place in which to study the minds, manners and morals
+of wild animals is in the most thickly populated haunts of the
+most intelligent species. The free and untrammeled animal, busily
+working out its own destiny unhindered by man, is the beau-ideal
+animal to observe and to study. Go to the plain, the wilderness,
+the desert and the mountain, not merely to shoot everything on
+foot, but to SEE _animals at home,_ and there use your eyes
+and your field-glass. See what _normal wild animals_ do as
+"behavior," and then try to find out why they do it.
+
+The next best place for study purposes is a spacious, sanitary and
+well-stocked zoological park, wherein are assembled great
+collections of the most interesting land vertebrates that can be
+procured, from all over the earth. There the student can observe
+many new traits of wild animal character, as they are brought to
+the surface by captivity. There will some individuals reveal the
+worst traits of their species. Others will reveal marvels in
+mentality, and teach lessons such as no man can learn from them in
+the open. To study temperament, there is no place like a zoo.
+
+Even there, however, the wisest course,--as it seems to me,--is
+not to introduce too many appliances as aids to mental activity,
+but rather to see what the animal subject thinks and does _by
+its own initiative._ In the testing of memory and the
+perceptive faculties, training for performances is the best method
+to pursue.
+
+The reader has a right to know that the author of this volume has
+enjoyed unparalleled opportunities for the observation and study
+of highly intelligent wild animals, both in their wild haunts and
+in a great vivarium; and these combined opportunities have covered
+a long series of years.
+
+Before proceeding farther, it is desirable to define certain terms
+that frequently will be used in these pages.
+
+THE ANIMAL BRAIN is the generator of the mind, and the clearing-
+house of the senses. As a mechanism, the brain of man is the most
+perfect, and in the descent through the mammals, birds, reptiles,
+amphibians and fishes, the brain progressively is simplified in
+form and function.
+
+THOUGHT is the result of the various processes of the brain and
+nervous system, stimulated by the contributions of the senses.
+
+SANITY is the state of normal, orderly and balanced thought, as
+formulated by a healthy brain.
+
+INSANITY is a state of mental disease, resulting in disordered,
+unbalanced and chaotic thought, destitute of reason.
+
+REASON is the manifestation of correct observation and healthful
+thought which recognizes both cause and effect, and leads from
+premise to conclusion. INTELLIGENCE is created by the possession
+of knowledge either inherited or acquired. It may be either latent
+or active; and it is the forerunner of reason.
+
+INSTINCT is the knowledge or impulse which animals or men derive
+from their ancestors by inheritance, and which they obey, either
+consciously or subconsciously in working out their own
+preservation, increase and betterment. Instinct often functions as
+a sixth sense.
+
+EDUCATION is the acquirement of knowledge by precept or by
+observation; but animals as well as men may be self-taught, and
+become self-educated, by the diligent exercise of the observing
+and reasoning faculties. The adjustment of a wild animal mind to
+conditions unknown to its ancestors is through the process of
+self-education, and by logical reasoning from premise to
+conclusion.
+
+The wild animal must think, or die.
+
+Animal intelligence varies in quantity and quality as much as
+animals vary in size. Idiots, maniacs and sleeping persons are the
+only classes of human beings who are devoid of intelligence and
+reasoning power. Idiots and maniacs also are often devoid of the
+common animal _instinct_ that ordinarily promotes self-
+preservation from fire, water and high places. A heavily sleeping
+person is often so sodden in slumber that his senses of smell and
+hearing are temporarily dead; and many a sleeping man has been
+asphyxiated by gas or smoke, or burned to death, because his
+deadened senses failed to arouse him at the critical moment. (This
+dangerous condition of mind can be cured by efforts of the will,
+exercised prior to sleep, through a determination resolutely to
+arouse and investigate every unusual sensation that registers
+"danger" on any one of the senses.) The normal individual sleeps
+with a subconscious and sensitive mind, from which thought and
+reason have not been entirely eliminated.
+
+Every act of a man or animal, vertebrate or invertebrate, is based
+upon either _reason_ or _hereditary instinct._ It is a
+mistake to assume that because an organism is small it
+necessarily has no "mind," and none of the propelling impulse that
+we call thought. The largest whale may have less intelligence and
+constructive reasoning than a trap-door spider, a bee or an ant.
+To deny this is to deny the evidence of one's senses.
+
+A MEASURE FOR ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE. The intelligence of an animal
+may be estimated by taking into account, separately, its mental
+qualities, about as follows:
+
+1. General knowledge of surrounding conditions.
+2. Powers of independent observation and reasoning.
+3. Memory.
+4. Comprehension under tuition.
+5. Accuracy in the execution of man's orders.
+
+Closely allied to these are the _moral qualities_ which go to
+make up an animal's temperament and disposition, about as follows:
+
+1. Amiability, which guarantees security to its associates.
+2. Patience, or submission to discipline and training.
+3. Courage, which gives self-confidence and steadiness.
+4. A disposition to obedience, with cheerfulness.
+
+All normal vertebrate animals exercise their intelligence in
+accordance with their own rules of logic. Had they not been able
+to do so, it is reasonable to suppose that they could never have
+developed into vertebrates, reaching even up to man himself.
+
+According to the laws of logic, this proposition is no more open
+to doubt or dispute than is the existence of the Grand Canyon of
+the Colorado. But few persons have seen the Canyon, and far fewer
+ever have proven its existence by descending to its bottom; but
+none the less Reason admonishes all of us that the great chasm
+exists, and is not a debatable question.
+
+To men and women who really know the vertebrate animals by contact
+with some of them upon their own levels, the reasoning power of
+the latter is not a debatable question. The only real question is:
+how far does their intelligence carry them? It is with puzzled
+surprise that we have noted the curious diligence of the
+professors of animal psychology in always writing of "animal
+_behavior_," and never of old-fashioned, common-sense
+_animal intelligence_. Can it be possible that any one of
+them really refuses to concede to the wild animal the possession
+of a mind, and a working intelligence?
+
+Yes. Animals do reason. If any one truth has come out of all the
+critical or uncritical study of the animal mind that has been
+going on for two centuries, it is this. Animals do reason; they
+always have reasoned, and as long as animals live they never will
+cease to reason.
+
+The higher wild animals possess and display the same fundamental
+passions and emotions that animate the human race. This fact is
+subject to intelligent analysis, discussion and development, but
+it is not by any means a "question" subject to debate. In the most
+intellectual of the quadrupeds, birds and reptiles, the display of
+fear, courage, love, hate, pleasure, displeasure, confidence,
+suspicion, jealousy, pity, greed and generosity are so plainly
+evident that even children can and do recognize them. To the
+serious and open-minded student who devotes prolonged thought to
+these things, they bring the wild animal very near to the "lord of
+creation."
+
+To the question, "Have wild animals souls?" we reply, "That is a
+debatable question. Read; then think it over."
+
+METHODS WITH THE ANIMAL MIND. In the study of animal minds, much
+depends upon the method employed. It seems to me that the problem-
+box method of the investigators of "animal behavior" leaves much
+to be desired. Certainly it is not calculated to develop the
+mental status of animals along lines of natural mental
+progression. To place a wild creature in a great artificial
+contrivance, fitted with doors, cords, levers, passages and what
+not, is enough to daze or frighten any timid animal out of its
+normal state of mind and nerves. To put a wild sapajou monkey,--
+weak, timid and afraid,--in a strange and formidable prison box
+filled with strange machinery, and call upon it to learn or to
+invent strange mechanical processes, is like bringing a boy of ten
+years up to a four-cylinder duplex Hoe printing-and-folding press,
+and saying to him: "Now, go ahead and find out how to run this
+machine, and print both sides of a signature upon it."
+
+The average boy would shrink from the mechanical monster, and have
+no stomach whatever for "trial by error."
+
+I think that the principle of determining the mind of a wild
+animal _along the lines of the professor_ is not the best
+way. It should be developed _along the natural lines of the
+wild-animal mind._ It should be stimulated to do what it feels
+most inclined to do, and educated to achieve real mental progress.
+
+I think that the ideal way to study the minds of apes, baboons and
+monkeys would be to choose a good location in a tropical or sub-
+tropical climate that is neither too wet nor too dry, enclose an
+area of five acres with an unclimbable fence, and divide it into
+as many corrals as there are species to be experimented upon. Each
+corral would need a shelter house and indoor playroom. The stage
+properties should be varied and abundant, and designed to
+stimulate curiosity as well as activity.
+
+Somewhere in the program I would try to teach orang-utans and
+chimpanzees the properties of fire, and how to make and tend
+fires. I would try to teach them the seed-planting idea, and the
+meaning of seedtime and harvest. I would teach sanitation and
+cleanliness of habit,--a thing much more easily done than most
+persons suppose. I would teach my apes to wash dishes and to cook,
+and I am sure that some of them would do no worse than some human
+members of the profession who now receive $50 per month, or more,
+for spoiling food.
+
+In one corral I would mix up a chimpanzee, an orang-utan, a golden
+baboon and a good-tempered rhesus monkey. My apes would begin at
+two years old, because after seven or eight years of age all apes
+are difficult, or even impossible, as subjects for peaceful
+experimentation.
+
+I would try to teach a chimpanzee the difference between a noise
+and music, between heat and cold, between good food and bad food.
+Any trainer can teach an animal the difference between the
+blessings of peace and the horrors of war, or in other words,
+obedience and good temper versus cussedness and punishment.
+
+Dr. Yerkes' laboratory in Montecito, California, and his
+experiments there with an orang-utan and other primates, were in a
+good place, and made a good beginning. It is very much to be hoped
+that means will be provided by which his work can be prosecuted
+indefinitely, and under the most perfect conditions that money can
+provide.
+
+I hope that I will live long enough to see Dr. Yerkes develop the
+mind of a young grizzly bear in a four-acre lot, to the utmost
+limits of that keen and sagacious personality.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+WILD ANIMAL TEMPERAMENT AND INDIVIDUALITY
+
+
+In man and in vertebrate animals generally, temperament is the
+foundation of intelligence and progress. Fifty years ago Fowler
+and Wells, the founders of the science of phrenology and
+physiognomy, very wisely differentiated and defined four
+"temperaments" of mankind. The six types now recognized by me are
+the _morose, lymphatic, sanguine, nervous, hysterical_ and
+_combative_; and their names adequately describe them.
+
+This classification applies to the higher wild animals, quite as
+truly as to men. By the manager of wild animals in captivity,
+wild-animal temperament universally is recognized and treated as a
+factor of great practical importance. Mistakes in judging the
+temper of dangerous animals easily lead to tragedies and sudden
+death.
+
+Fundamentally the temperament of a man or an animal is an
+inheritance from ancestors near or remote. In the human species a
+morose or hysterical temperament may possibly be corrected or
+improved, by education and effort. With animals this is rarely
+possible. The morose gorilla gives way to cheerfulness only when
+it is placed in ideally pleasant and stimulating social
+conditions. This, however, very seldom is possible. The nervous
+deer, bear or monkey is usually nervous to the end of its days.
+
+The morose and hysterical temperaments operate against mental
+development, progress and happiness. In the human species among
+individuals of equal mental calibre, the sanguine individual is
+due to rise higher and go farther than his nervous or lymphatic
+rivals. A characteristic temperament may embrace the majority of
+a whole species, or be limited to a few individuals. Many species
+are permanently characterized by the temperament common to the
+majority of their individual members. Thus, among the great apes
+the gorilla species is either morose or lymphatic; and it is
+manifested by persistent inactivity and sullenness. This leads to
+loss of appetite, indigestion, inactivity and early death. Major
+Penny's "John Gorilla" was a notable exception, as will appear in
+Chapter IX.
+
+The orang-utan is sanguine, optimistic and cheerful, a good
+boarder, affectionate toward his keepers, and friendly toward
+strangers. He eats well, enjoys life, lives long, and is well
+liked by everybody.
+
+Except when quite young, the chimpanzee is either nervous or
+hysterical. After six years of age it is irritable and difficult
+to manage. After seven years of age (puberty) it is rough,
+domineering and dangerous. The male is given to shouting, yelling,
+shrieking and roaring, and when quite angry rages like a demon. I
+know of no wild animal that is more dangerous per pound than a
+male chimpanzee over eight years of age. When young they do
+wonders in trained performances, but when they reach maturity,
+grow big of arm and shoulder, and masterfully strong, they quickly
+become conscious of their strength. It is then that performing
+chimpanzees become unruly, fly into sudden fits of temper, their
+back hair bristles up, they stamp violently, and sometimes leap
+into a terrorized orchestra. Next in order, they are retired
+willy-nilly from the stage, and are offered for sale to zoological
+parks and gardens having facilities for confinement and control.
+
+The baboons are characteristically fierce and aggressive, and in a
+wild state they live in troops, or even in herds of hundreds.
+Being armed with powerful canine teeth and wolf-like jaws, they
+are formidable antagonists, and other animals do not dare to
+attack them. It is because of their natural weapons, their
+readiness to fight like fiends, and their combined agility and
+strength that the baboons have been able to live on the ground and
+survive and flourish in lands literally reeking with lions,
+leopards, hyenas and wild dogs. The awful canine teeth of an old
+male baboon are quite as dangerous as those of any leopard, and
+even the leopard's onslaught is less to be feared than the wild
+rage of an adult baboon. In the Transvaal and Rhodesia, it is a
+common occurrence for an ambitious dog to go after a troop of
+baboons and never return.
+
+Temperamentally the commoner groups of monkeys are thus
+characterized:
+
+The rhesus monkeys of India are nervous, irritable and dangerous.
+
+The green monkeys of Africa are sanguine, but savage and
+treacherous.
+
+The langur monkeys of India are sanguine and peace-loving.
+
+The macaques of the Far East vary from the sanguine temperament to
+the combative.
+
+The gibbons vary from sanguine to combative.
+
+The lemurs of Madagascar are sanguine, affectionate and peaceful.
+
+Nearly all South American monkeys are sanguine, and peace-loving,
+and many are affectionate.
+
+The species of the group of Carnivora are too numerous and too
+diversified to be treated with any approach to completeness.
+However, to illustrate this subject the leading species will be
+noticed.
+
+TEMPERAMENTS OF THE LARGE CARNIVORES
+
+The lion is sanguine, courageous, confident, reposeful and very
+reliable.
+
+The tiger is nervous, suspicious, treacherous and uncertain.
+
+The black and common leopards are nervous and combative,
+irreconcilable and dangerous.
+
+The snow leopard is sanguine, optimistic and peace-loving. The
+puma is sanguine, good natured, quiet and peaceful.
+
+The wolves are sanguine, crafty, dangerous and cruel.
+
+The foxes are hysterical, timid and full of senseless fear.
+
+The lynxes are sanguine, philosophic, and peaceful.
+
+The mustelines are either nervous or hysterical, courageous,
+savage, and even murderous.
+
+The bears are so very interesting that it is well worth while to
+consider the leading species separately. Possibly our conclusions
+will reveal some unsuspected conditions.
+
+BEAR TEMPERAMENTS, BY SPECIES. The polar bears are sanguine, but
+in captivity they are courageous, treacherous and dangerous.
+
+The Alaskan brown bears in captivity are sanguine, courageous,
+peaceful and reliable, but in the wilds they are aggressive and
+dangerous.
+
+The grizzlies are nervous, keen, cautious, and seldom wantonly
+aggressive.
+
+The European brown bears are sanguine, optimistic and good-
+natured.
+
+The American black bears are sanguine and quiet, but very
+treacherous.
+
+The sloth bears of India are nervous or hysterical, and uncertain.
+
+The Malay sun bears are hysterical, aggressive and evil-tempered.
+
+The Japanese black bears are nervous, cowardly and aggressive.
+
+To those who form and maintain large collections of bears,
+involving much companionship in dens, it is necessary to keep a
+watchful eye on the temperament chart.
+
+THE DEER. In our Zoological Park establishment there is no
+collection in which both the collective and the individual
+equation is more troublesome than the deer family. In their
+management, as with apes, monkeys and bears, it is necessary to
+take into account the temperament not only of the species, but
+also of each animal; and there are times when this necessity bears
+hard upon human nerves. The proneness of captive deer to maim and
+to kill themselves and each other calls for the utmost vigilance,
+and for heroic endurance on the part of the deer keeper.
+
+Even when a deer species has a fairly good record for common
+sense, an individual may "go crazy" the instant a slightly new
+situation arises. We have seen barasingha deer penned up between
+shock-absorbing bales of hay seriously try to jump straight up
+through a roof skylight nine feet from the floor. We have seen
+park-bred axis deer break their own necks against wire fences,
+with 100 per cent of stupidity.
+
+CHARACTERS OF DEER SPECIES
+
+The white-tailed deer is sanguine, but in the fall the bucks are
+very aggressive and dangerous, and to be carefully avoided. The
+mule deer is sanguine, reasonable and not particularly dangerous.
+
+The elk is steady of nerve, and sanguine in temperament, but in
+the rutting season the herd-masters are dangerous.
+
+The fallow deer species has been toned down by a hundred
+generations of park life, and it is very quiet, save when it is to
+be captured and crated.
+
+The axis deer is nervous, flighty, and difficult to handle.
+
+The barasingha deer is hysterical and unaccountable.
+
+The Indian and Malay sambar deer are lymphatic, confident,
+tractable and easily handled.
+
+Never keep a deer as a "pet" any longer than is necessary to place
+it in a good home. All "pet deer" are dangerous, and should be
+confined all the time. Never go into the range or corral of a deer
+herd unless accompanied by the deer-keeper; and in the rutting
+season do not go in at all.
+
+The only thoroughly safe deer is a dead one; for even does can do
+mischief. A SAMPLE OF NERVOUS TEMPERAMENT. As an example of
+temperament in small carnivores, we will cite the coati mundi of
+South America. It is one of the most nervous and restless animals
+we know. An individual of sanguine temperament rarely is seen. Out
+of about forty specimens with which we have been well acquainted,
+I do not recall one that was as quiet and phlegmatic as the
+raccoon, the nearest relative of _Nasua_. With a disposition
+so restless and enterprising, and with such vigor of body and
+mind, I count it strange that the genus _Nasua_ has not
+spread all over our south-eastern states, where it is surely
+fitted to exist in a state of nature even more successfully than
+the raccoon or opossum.
+
+The temper of the coati mundi is essentially quarrelsome and
+aggressive. While young, they are reasonably peaceful, but when
+they reach adult age, they become aggressive, and quarrels are
+frequent. Separations then are very necessary, and it is rare
+indeed that more than two adult individuals can be caged together.
+Even when two only are kept together, quarrels and shrill
+squealings are frequent. But they seldom hurt each other. The
+coati is not a treacherous animal, it is not given to lying in
+wait to make a covert attack from ambush, and being almost
+constantly on the move, it is a good show animal.
+
+THE STRANGE COMBATIVE TEMPERAMENT OF THE GUANACO. In appearance
+the guanaco is the personification of gentleness. Its placid
+countenance indicates no guile, nor means of offense. Its lustrous
+gazelle-like eyes, and its soft, woolly fleece suggest softness of
+disposition. But in reality no animal is more deceptive. In a wild
+state amongst its own kind, or in captivity,--no matter how
+considerately treated,--it is a quarrelsome and at times
+intractable animal. "A pair of wild guanacos can often be seen or
+heard engaged in desperate combat, biting and tearing, and rolling
+over one another on the ground, uttering their gurgling, bubbling
+cries of rage. Of a pair so engaged, I shot one whose tail had
+then been bitten off in the encounter. In confinement, the guanaco
+charges one with his chest, or rears up on his hind legs to strike
+one with his fore-feet, besides biting and spitting up the
+contents of the stomach."--Richard Crawshay in "The Birds of Terra
+del Fuego."
+
+MENTAL TRAITS AND TEMPER OF THE ATLANTIC WALRUS
+
+Mr. Langdon Gibson, of Schenectady, kindly wrote out for me the
+following highly interesting observations on a remarkable arctic
+animal with which we are but slightly acquainted:
+
+"In the summer of 1891, as a member of the first Peary Expedition
+I had an opportunity of observing some of the traits of the
+Atlantic walrus. I found him to be a real animal, of huge size,
+with an extremely disagreeable temper and most belligerently
+inclined. We hunted them in open whale-boats under the shadows of
+Greenland's mountain-bound coast, in the Whale Sound region, Lat.
+77 degrees North.
+
+"We hunted among animals never before molested, except by the
+Eskimo who (so far as I was able to ascertain) hunt them only
+during the winter season on the sea ice. We found animals whose
+courage and belief in themselves and their prowess had hitherto
+been unshaken by contact with the white man and his ingenious
+devices of slaughter.
+
+"The walrus has a steady nerve and a thoroughly convincing roar.
+They have fought their kind and the elements for centuries and
+centuries, and know no fear. This, then, was the animal we sought
+in order to secure food for our dog teams. I can conceive of no
+form of big game hunting so conducive to great mental excitement
+and physical activity as walrus hunting from an open whale-boat.
+At the completion of such a hunt I have seen Eskimo so excited and
+worked up that they were taken violently sick with vomiting and
+headache.
+
+"The walrus is a gregarious animal, confederating in herds
+numbering from ten to fifty, and in some instances no doubt larger
+numbers may be found together. On calm days they rest in
+unmolested peace on pans of broken ice which drift up and down the
+waters of Whale Sound. It is unfortunate that no soundings were
+taken in the region where the walrus were found, as a knowledge of
+the depth of water would have furnished some information as to the
+distances to which the animal will dive in search of food.
+
+"The stomachs of all half- and full-grown walrus taken in Whale
+Sound were without exception well filled with freshly opened
+clams, with very few fragments of shells in evidence; the removal
+of the clam from the shell being as neatly accomplished as though
+done by an expert oysterman.
+
+"In most cases these segregated herds of walrus were in charge of
+a large bull who generally occupied a central position in the mass
+of animals. Upon approaching such a herd for the first time, and
+when within about 200 feet, a large bull would lift his head,
+sniff audibly in our direction and give a loud grunt which
+apparently struck a responsive chord in the other sleeping
+animals. They would grunt in unison, in more subdued tones, after
+which the old walrus would drop his head to resume his interrupted
+nap. Their contempt for us was somewhat disconcerting.
+
+"At the first crack of a rifle, however, the animals immediately
+aroused, and then during the fusillade which followed there
+occurred what might be called an orderly scramble for the water.
+In the first place the young ones were hustled to the edge of the
+ice-pan, and there, apparently under the protection of the
+mother's flipper, pushed into the water, immediately followed by
+the mother. The young bulls followed, and I recall no exceptions
+where the last animal into the water was not the big bull, who
+before diving would give our boat a wicked look and a roar of
+rage.
+
+"The animals would immediately dive, and then we first became
+aware of a remarkable phenomenon. We found that when excited they
+would continue their roaring under water, and these strange sounds
+coming to us from below added considerably to the excitement of
+the chase. Although the cows and young animals would generally
+swim to places of safety, the other full grown animals would hover
+beneath our boat and from time to time come to the surface and
+charge. These charges were in all cases repulsed by the discharge
+of our rifles in the faces of the animals. The balls, however,
+from our .45 calibre carbines would flatten out under the skin on
+the massive bony structure of the animal's skull, and cause only a
+sort of rage and a sneeze, but it however had the effect of making
+them dive again. It is my belief that when enraged the walrus if
+not resisted would attack and attempt to destroy a boat. Icquah,
+one of our native hunters, showed me in the deck of his kyak two
+mended punctures which he told me were made by the tusks of a
+walrus that had made an _unprovoked_ attack upon him.
+
+"On more than one occasion I have seen two strong uninjured
+animals come to the assistance of a wounded companion, and swim
+away with it to a position of safety, _the injured animal being
+supported on both sides_, giving the appearance of three
+animals swimming abreast. The first time I witnessed this I did
+not comprehend its real meaning, but on another occasion in
+McCormick Bay I saw a wounded animal leaving a trail of blood and
+oil, supported on either side by two uninjured ones. They were
+making a hasty retreat and would occasionally dive together, but
+would quickly return to the surface.
+
+"We found the most effective exposed spot to place a bullet was at
+the base of the animal's skull. A walrus instantly killed this way
+generally sinks, leaving a trail of blood and oil to mark the
+place of his descent. When hunting these animals it is well to
+have an Eskimo along with harpoon and line in readiness to make
+fast; otherwise one is apt to lose his quarry.
+
+"In the early winter we usually found the walrus in smaller groups
+up in the bays. This was after the ice had begun to make, and in
+coming to the surface to breathe the animals found it necessary
+to butt their noses against the ice to break it. I have seen this
+done in ice at least four inches in thickness. In some instances
+I have seen a fractured star in the ice, a record of an unsuccessful
+attempt to make a breathing hole." Around these breathing holes
+we frequently found fragments of clam-shells, sections of
+crinoids and sea-anemones. It is evident that after raking the
+bottom with his tusks and filling his mouth with food, the walrus
+separates the food he desires to retain and rejects on his way up
+and at the surface such articles as he has picked up in haste and
+does not want.
+
+"From the fact that the walrus is easily approached it is a simple
+matter to kill him with the modern high power rule. It is
+therefore to be hoped that future expeditions into the arctic seas
+will kill sparingly of these tremendous brutes which from point of
+size stand in the foremost rank among mammals."
+
+The Elephant, Rhinoceros and Hippopotamus. _Individual
+Elephants_ vary in temperament far more than do rhinoceroses
+or hippopotami, and the variations are wide. In a wild state,
+elephants are quiet and undemonstrative, almost to the point of
+dullness. They do not domineer, or hector, or quarrel, save when a
+rogue develops in the ranks, and sets out to make things
+interesting by the commission of lawless acts. A professional
+rogue is about everything that an orthodox elephant should not
+be, and he soon makes of himself so great a nuisance that he is
+driven out of the herd.
+
+The temperament of the standardized and normal elephant is
+distinctly sanguine, _but a nervous or hysterical individual is
+easily developed by bad conditions or abuse_. Adult male
+elephants are subject to various degrees of what we may as well
+call sexual insanity, which is dangerous in direct proportion to
+its intensity. This causes many a "bad" show elephant to be
+presented to a zoological garden, where the dangers of this mental
+condition can at least be reduced to their lowest terms. Our
+Indian elephant who was known as Gunda was afflicted with sexual
+insanity, and he gradually grew worse, and increasingly dangerous
+to his keepers, until finally it was necessary to end his troubles
+painlessly with a bullet through his brain.
+
+_The Rhinoceros_ is a sanguine animal, of rather dull vision
+and slow understanding. In captivity it gives little trouble, and
+lives long. Adults individually often become pettish, or peevish,
+and threaten to prod their keepers without cause, but I have never
+known a keeper to take those lapses seriously. The average rhino
+is by no means a dull or a stupid animal, and they have quite
+enough life to make themselves interesting to visitors. In British
+East Africa a black rhinoceros often trots briskly toward a
+caravan, and seems to be charging, when in reality it is only
+desiring a "close-up" to satisfy its legitimate curiosity.
+
+_Every Hippopotamus_, either Nile or pygmy, is an animal of
+serene mind and steady habits. Their appetites work with clock-
+like regularity, and require no winding. I can not recall that any
+one of our five hippos was ever sick for a day, or missed a meal.
+When the idiosyncrasies of Gunda, our bad elephant, were at their
+worst, the contemplation of Peter the Great ponderously and
+serenely chewing his hay was a rest to tired nerves. Keeper Thuman
+treats the four pygmy hippos like so many pet pigs,--save the
+solitary adult male, who sets himself up to be peevish. The
+breeding female is a wise and good mother, with much more maternal
+instinct than our chimpanzee "Suzette."
+
+It may be set down as an absolute rule that hippos are lymphatic,
+easy-going, contented, and easy to take care of _provided_
+they are kept scrupulously clean, and are fed as they should be
+fed. They live long, breed persistently, give no trouble and have
+high exhibition value.
+
+_Giraffe_ individuals vary exceedingly,--beyond all other
+hoofed animals. Each one has its own headful of notions, and
+rarely will two be found quite alike in temperament and views of
+life. Some are sanguine and sensible, others are nervous,
+crotchety, and full of senseless fears. Those who are responsible
+for them in captivity are constantly harassed by fears that they
+will stampede in their stalls or yards, and break their own necks
+and legs in most unexpected ways. They require greater vigilance
+than any other hoofed animals we know. Sometimes a giraffe will
+develop foolishness to such a degree as to be unwilling to go out
+of its own huge door, into a shady and comfortable yard.
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+THE LANGUAGE OF WILD ANIMALS
+
+
+Language is the means by which men and animals express their
+thoughts. Of language there are four kinds: vocal, pictured,
+written and sign language.
+
+Any vocal sound uttered for the purpose of conveying thought, or
+influencing thought or action, is to be classed as vocal language.
+Among the mammals below man, _speech_ is totally absent; but
+parrots, macaws, cockatoos and crows have been taught to imitate
+the sound of man's words, or certain simple kinds of music.
+
+The primitive races of mankind first employed the sign language,
+and spoken words. After that comes picture language, and lastly
+the language of written words. Among the Indians and frontiersmen
+of the western United States and Canada, the sign language has
+reached what in all probability is its highest development, and
+its vocabulary is really wonderful.
+
+The higher wild animals express their thoughts and feelings
+usually by sign language, and rarely by vocal sounds. Their power
+of expression varies species by species, or tribe by tribe, quite
+as it does among the races and tribes of men. It is our belief
+that there are today several living races of men whose
+vocabularies are limited to about 300 words.
+
+Very many species of animals appear to be voiceless; but it is
+hazardous to attempt to specify the species. Sometimes under
+stress of new emergencies, or great pain, animals that have been
+considered voiceless suddenly give tongue. That hundreds of
+species of mammals and birds use their voices in promoting
+movements for their safety, there is no room to doubt. The only
+question is of the methods and the extent of voice used. Birds and
+men give expression to their pleasure or joy by singing.
+
+In the jungle and the heavily wooded wilderness, one hears really
+little of vocal wild-animal language. Through countless
+generations the noisiest animals have been the first ones to be
+sought out and killed by their enemies, and only the more silent
+species have survived. All the higher animals, as we call the
+higher vertebrates, have the ability to exchange thoughts and
+convey ideas; and that is language.
+
+At the threshold of this subject we are met by two interesting
+facts. Excepting the song-birds, the wild creatures of today have
+learned through instinct and accumulated experience that silence
+promotes peace and long life. The bull moose who bawls through a
+mile of forest, and the bull elk who bugles not wisely but too
+well, soon find their heads hanging in some sportsman's dining-
+room, while the silent Virginia deer, like the brook, goes on
+forever.
+
+Association with man through countless generations has taught
+domestic animals not only the fact of their safety when giving
+voice, but also that very often there is great virtue in a
+vigorous outcry. With an insistent staccato neigh, the hungry
+horse jars the dull brain of its laggard master, and prompts him
+to "feed and water the stock." But how different is the cry of a
+lost horse, which calls for rescue. It cannot be imitated in
+printed words; but every plainsman knows the shrill and prolonged
+trumpet-call of distress that can be heard a mile or more,
+understandingly.
+
+And think of the vocabulary of the domestic chicken! Years of life
+in fancied security have developed a highly useful vocabulary of
+language calls and cries. The most important, and the best known,
+are the following:
+
+"Beware the hawk!"--"Coor! Coor!" "Murder! Help!"--"Kee-
+_owk_! Kee-_owk_! Kee-_owk_!" "Come on"--"Cluck!
+Cluck! Cluck!" "Food here! Food!"--"Cook-cook-cook-cook!"
+Announcement, or alarm--"Cut-cut-cut-_dah_-cut!" But does
+the wild jungle-fowl, the ancestor of our domestic chicken,
+indulge in all those noisy expressions of thought and feeling? By
+no means. I have lived for months in jungles where my hut was
+surrounded by jungle-fowl, and shot many of them for my table; but
+the only vocal sound I ever heard from their small throats was the
+absurdly shrill bantam-like crow of the cock. And even that led to
+several fatalities in the ranks of _Gallus stanleyi_.
+
+Domestic cattle, swine and fowls have each a language of their
+own, and as far as they go they are almost as clear-cut and
+understandable as the talk of human beings. Just how much more is
+behind the veil that limits our understanding we cannot say; but
+no doubt there is a great deal.
+
+But it is with the language of wild animals that we are most
+concerned. As already pointed out, wild creatures, other than
+song-birds, do not care to say much, because of the danger of
+attracting enemies that will exterminate them. Herein lies the
+extreme difficulty of ascertaining how wild beasts communicate.
+In the Animallai Hills of southern India I hunted constantly for
+many weeks through forests actually teeming with big game. There
+were herds upon herds of elephants, gaur, axis deer, sambar deer,
+monkeys by the hundred, and a good sprinkling of bears, wild hogs
+and tigers.
+
+We saw hundreds upon hundreds of animals; but with the exception
+of the big black monkeys that used to swear at us, I can almost
+count upon my fingers the whole number of times that we heard
+animals raise their voices to communicate with each other.
+
+Ape Voices. Naturally it is of interest to know something of the
+voices of the animals that physically and mentally stand nearest
+to man.
+
+The wild gorilla has a voice almost equal to that of the
+chimpanzee, but in captivity he rarely utters any vocal sound
+other than a shriek, or scream.
+
+The baby orang-utan either whines or shrieks like a human child.
+The half-grown or adult orang when profoundly excited bellows or
+roars, in a deep bass voice. Usually, however, it is a
+persistently silent animal.
+
+The chimpanzee has a voice, and vociferously expresses its
+emotions.
+
+First and most often is the plaintive, coaxing note, "Who'-oo!
+who'-oo! who'-oo!"
+
+Then comes the angry and threatening, "Wah', wah', wah-!
+_Wah'_-hool _Wah'_-hool"
+
+Lastly we hear the fearful, high-pitched yell or shriek, "Ah-h-h-
+h!" or "E-e-e-e."
+
+The shriek, or scream, can be heard half a mile, and at close
+range it is literally ear-splitting. Usually it is accompanied by
+violent stamping or pounding with the feet upon the floor. It may
+signify rage, or nothing more than the joy of living, and of
+having a place in which to yell. It is this cry that is uncannily
+human-like in sound, and when heard for the first time it seems to
+register anguish.
+
+In its Bornean jungle home, the orang-utan is nearly as silent as
+the grave. Never save once did I hear one utter a vocal sound.
+That was a deep bass roar emitted by an old male that I disturbed
+while he was sleeping on the comfortable nest of green branches
+that he had built for himself.
+
+Concerning the chimpanzee, the late Mr. Richard L. Garner
+testified as follows:
+
+"Not only does the chimpanzee often break the silence of the
+forest when all other voices are hushed, but he frequently answers
+the sounds of other animals, as if in mockery or defiance. ...
+Although diurnal in habit, the chimpanzees often make the night
+reverberate with the sounds of their terrific screaming, which I
+have known them to continue at times for more than an hour, with
+scarcely a moment's pause,--not one voice but many, and within
+the area of a square mile or so I have distinguished as many as
+seven alternating adult male voices.
+
+"The gorilla is more silent and stoical than the chimpanzee, but
+he is far from being mute. He appears to be devoid of all
+risibility, but he is often very noisy. Although diurnal in habit,
+he talks less frequently during the day than at night, but his
+silence is a natural consequence of his stealth and cunning. There
+are times, however, when he ignores all danger of betraying his
+whereabouts or his movements, and gives vent to a deluge of
+speech. At night his screams and shouts are terrific."
+
+The gibbons (including the siamang) have tremendous voices, with
+numerous variations, and they love to use them. My acquaintance
+with them began in Borneo, in the dense and dark coastal forest
+that there forms their home. I remember their cries as vividly as
+if I had heard them again this morning. While feeding, or quietly
+enjoying the morning sun, the gray gibbon (_Hylobates
+concolor_) emits in leisurely succession a low staccato,
+whistle-like cry, like "Hoot! Hoot! Hoot!" which one can easily
+counterfeit by whistling. This is varied by another whistle cry of
+three notes, thus: "Who-ee-hoo! Who-ee-hoo!" also to be duplicated
+by whistling. In hunting for specimens of that gibbon, for
+American museums, I could rarely locate a troop save by the tree-
+top talk of its members.
+
+But all this was only childish prattle in comparison with the
+daily performances of the big white-handed, and the black hoolock
+gibbons, now and for several years past residing in our Primate
+House. Every morning, and perhaps a dozen times during the day,
+those three gibbons go on a vocal rampage and utter prolonged and
+ear-splitting cries and shrieks that make the welkin ring. The
+shrieking chorus is usually prolonged until it becomes tiresome to
+the monkeys. In all our ape and monkey experience we never have
+known its equal save in the vocal performances of Boma, our big
+adult male chimpanzee, the husband of Suzette.
+
+A baboon emits occasionally, and without any warning, a fearful
+explosive bark, or roar, that to visitors is as startling as the
+report of a gun. The commonest expressions are "Wah!" and
+"_Wah'_-hoo!", and the visitor who can hear it close at hand
+without jumping has good nerves.
+
+The big and solemn long-nosed monkey of Borneo (_Nasalis
+larvatus_) utters in his native tree-top (overhanging water), a
+cry like the resonant "honk" of a saxophone. He says plainly, "Kee
+honk," and all that I could make of its meaning was that it is
+used as the equivalent of "All's well."
+
+Of all the monkeys that I have ever known, either wild or in
+captivity, the red howlers of the Orinoco, in Venezuela, have the
+most remarkable voices, and make the most remarkable use of them.
+The hyoid cartilage is expanded,--for Nature's own particular
+reasons,--into a wonderful sound-box, as big as an English walnut,
+which gives to the adult voice a depth of pitch and a booming
+resonance that is impossible to describe. The note produced is a
+prolonged bass roar, in alternately rising and falling cadence,
+and in reality comprising about three notes. It is the habit of
+troops of red howlers to indulge in nocturnal concerts, wherein
+four, five or six old males will pipe up and begin to howl in
+unison. The great volume of uncanny sound thus produced goes
+rolling through the still forest, far and wide; and to the white
+explorer who lies in his grass hammock in pitchy darkness,
+fighting off the mosquitoes and loneliness, and wondering from
+whence tomorrow's meals will come, the moral effect is gruesome
+and depressing.
+
+In captivity the youthful howler habitually growls and grumbles in
+a way that is highly amusing, and the absurd pitch of the deep
+bass voice issuing from so small an animal is cause for wonder.
+
+It is natural that we should look closely to the apes and monkeys
+for language, both by voice and sign. In 1891 there was a flood of
+talk on "the speech of monkeys," and it was not until about 1904
+that the torrent stopped. At first the knowledge that monkeys can
+and do communicate to a limited extent by vocal sounds was hailed
+as a "discovery"; but unfortunately for science, nothing has been
+proved beyond the long-known fact that primates of a given species
+understand the meaning of the few sounds and cries to which their
+kind give utterance.
+
+Thus far I have never succeeded in teaching a chimpanzee or
+orangutan to say even as much as "Oh" or "Ah." Nothing seems to be
+further from the mind of an orang than the idea of a new vocal
+utterance as a means to an end.
+
+Our Polly was the most affectionate and demonstrative chimpanzee
+that I have ever seen, and her reaction to my voice was the best
+that I have found in our many apes. She knew me well, and when I
+greeted her in her own language, usually she answered me promptly
+and vociferously. Often when she had been busy with her physical-
+culture exercises and Delsartean movements on the horizontal bars
+or the trapeze in the centre of her big cage, I tested her by
+quietly joining the crowd of visitors in the centre of the room
+before her cage, and saying to her: "Polly! Wah! Wah! Wah!"
+
+Nearly every time she would stop short, give instant attention and
+joyously respond "Wah! Wah! Wah!", repeating the cry a dozen times
+while she clambered down to the lower front bars to reach me with
+her hands. When particularly excited she would cry "_Who_-oo!
+_Who_-oo! _Who_-oo!" with great clearness and vehemence,
+the two syllables pitched four notes apart. This cry was uttered
+as a joyous greeting, and also at feeding-time, in expectation of
+food; but, simple as the task seems to be, I really do not know
+how to translate its meaning into English. In one case it appears
+to mean "How do you do?" and in the other it seems to stand for
+"Hurry up!"
+
+Polly screamed when angry or grieved, just like a naughty child;
+and her face assumed the extreme of screaming-child expression.
+She whined plaintively when coaxing, or when only slightly
+grieved. With these four manifestations her vocal powers seemed to
+stop short. Many times I opened her mouth widely with my fingers,
+and tried to surprise her into saying "Ah," but with no result. It
+seems almost impossible to stamp the vocal-sound idea upon the
+mind of an orang-utan or chimpanzee. Polly uttered two distinct
+and clearly cut syllables, and it really seemed as if her vocal
+organs could have done more if called upon.
+
+The cries of the monkeys, baboons and lemurs are practically
+nothing more than squeals, shrieks or roars. The baboons (several
+species, at least) bark or roar most explosively, using the
+syllable "Wah!" It is only by the most liberal interpretation of
+terms that such cries can be called language. The majority express
+only two emotions--dissatisfaction and expectation. Every primate
+calls for help in the same way that human beings do, by shrill
+screaming; but none of them ever cry "Oh" or "Ah."
+
+The only members of the monkey tribe who ever spoke to me in their
+native forests were the big black langurs of the Animallai Hills
+in Southern India. They used to glare down at us, and curse us
+horribly whenever we met. Had we been big pythons instead of men
+they could not have said "Confound you!" any more plainly or more
+vehemently than they did.
+
+In those museum-making days our motto was "All's fish that cometh
+to net"; and we killed monkeys for their skins and skeletons the
+same as other animals. My brown-skinned Mulcer hunters said that
+the bandarlog hated me because of my white skin. At all events, as
+we stalked silently through those forests, half a dozen times a
+day we would hear an awful explosion overhead, startling to men
+who were still-hunting big game, and from the middle zone of the
+tree-tops black and angry faces would peer down at us. They said:
+"Wah! Wah! Wah! Ah-^oo-oo-Aoo-oo-^oo-oo!" and it was nothing else
+than cursing and blackguarding. How those monkeys did hate us! I
+never have encountered elsewhere anything like it in monkey-land.
+la 1902 there was a startling exhibition of monkey language at
+our Primate House. That was before the completion of the Lion House.
+We had to find temporary outdoor quarters for the big jaguar,
+"Senor Lopez"; and there being nothing else available, we decided
+to place him, for a few days only, in the big circular cage at the
+north end of the range of outside cages. It was May, and the
+baboons, red-faced monkeys, rhesus, green and many other of the
+monkeys were in their outside quarters.
+
+I was not present when Lopez was turned into the big: cage; but I
+heard it. Down through the woods to the polar bears' den, a good
+quarter of a mile, came a most awful uproar, made by many voices.
+The bulk of it was a medley of raucous yells and screeches, above
+which it was easy to distinguish the fierce, dog-like barks and
+roars of the baboons.
+
+We knew at once that Lopez had arrived. Hurrying up to the Primate
+House, we found the wire fronts of the outside cages literally
+plastered with monkeys and baboons, all in the wildest excitement.
+The jaguar was in full view of them, and although not one out of
+the whole lot, except the sapajous, ever had an ancestor who had
+seen a jaguar, one and all recognized a hostile genus, and a
+hereditary enemy.
+
+And how they cursed him, reviled him, and made hideous faces at
+him! The long-armed yellow baboons barked and roared until they
+were heard half a mile away. The ugly-tempered macaques and
+rhesus monkeys nearly burst with hatred and indignation. The row
+was kept up for a long time, and the monkey language that was lost
+to science on that occasion was, both in quantity and quality,
+beyond compare.
+
+Bear Language. In their native haunts bears are as little given
+to loud talk as other animals; but in roomy and comfortable
+captivity, where many are yarded together, they rapidly develop
+vocal powers. Our bears are such cheerful citizens, and they do so
+many droll things, that the average visitor works overtime in
+watching them. I have learned the language of our bears
+sufficiently that whenever I hear one of them give tongue I know
+what he says. For example:
+
+In warning or threatening an enemy, the sloth bear says: "Ach!
+Ach! Ach!" and the grizzly says: "Woof! Woof!" A fighting bear
+says: "Aw-aw-aw!" A baby's call for its mother is "Row! Row!" A
+bear's distress call is: "Err-_wow_-oo-oo-oof!"
+
+But even in a zoological park it is not possible for everyone to
+recognize and interpret the different cries of bears, although the
+ability to do so is sometimes of value to the party of the second
+part. For example:
+
+One day in February I was sitting in my old office in the Service
+Building, engrossed in I know not what important and solemn
+matter. The park was quiet; for the snow lay nine inches deep over
+all. There were no visitors, and the maintenance men were
+silently shovelling. Over the hill from the bear dens came the
+voice of a bear. It said, as plainly as print: "Err-wow!" I said
+to myself: "That sounds like a distress call," and listened to
+hear it repeated.
+
+Again it came: "Err-wow!"
+
+I caught up my hat and hastened over the hill toward the bear
+dens. On the broad concrete walk, about a hundred feet from the
+dens, four men were industriously shovelling snow, unaware that
+anything was wrong anywhere except on the pay-roll, opposite their
+names.
+
+Guided by the cries that came from "The Nursery" den, where six
+yearling cubs were kept, I quickly caught sight of the trouble.
+One of our park-born brown bear cubs was hanging fast by one
+forefoot from the top of the barred partition. He had climbed to
+the top of the ironwork, thrust one front paw through between two
+of the bars (for bears are the greatest busybodies on earth), and
+when he sought to withdraw it, the sharp point of a bar in the
+overhang of the tree-guard had buried itself in the back of his
+paw, and held him fast. It seemed as if his leg was broken, and
+also dislocated at the shoulder. No wonder the poor little chap
+squalled for help. His mother, on the other side of the partition,
+was almost frantic with baffled sympathy, for she could do nothing
+to help him.
+
+It did not take more than a quarter of a minute to have several
+men running for crowbars and other things, and within five minutes
+from the discovery we were in the den ready for action. The little
+chap gave two or three cries to let us know how badly it hurt his
+leg to hang there, then bent his small mind upon rendering us
+assistance.
+
+First we lifted him up bodily, and held him, to remove the strain.
+Then, by good luck, we had at hand a stout iron bar with a U-
+shaped end; and with that under the injured wrist, and a crowbar
+to spring the treacherous overhang, we lifted the foot clear, and
+lowered little Brownie to the floor. From first to last he helped
+us all he could, and seemed to realize that it was clearly "no
+fair" to bite or scratch. Fortunately the leg was neither broken
+nor dislocated, and although Brownie limped for ten days, he soon
+was all right again.
+
+After the incident had been closed, I gave the men a brief lecture
+on the language of bears, and the necessity of being able to
+recognize the distress call.
+
+You can chase bison, elephants and deer all day without hearing a
+single vocal utterance. They know through long experience the
+value of silence.
+
+The night after I shot my second elephant we noted an exception.
+The herd had been divided by our onslaught. Part of it had gone
+north, part of it south, and our camp for the night (beside the
+dead tusker) lay midway between the two. About bedtime the
+elephants began signalling to each other by trumpeting, and what
+they sounded was "The assembly." They called and answered
+repeatedly; and finally it became clear to my native followers
+that the two herds were advancing to unite, and were likely to
+meet in our vicinity. That particular trumpet call was different
+from any other I have ever heard. It was a regular "Hello" signal-
+call, entirely different from the "Tal-_loo_-e" blast which
+once came from a feeding herd and guided us to it.
+
+But it is only on rare occasions that elephants communicate with
+each other by sound. I once knew a general alarm to be
+communicated throughout a large herd by the sign language, and a
+retreat organized and carried out in absolute silence. Their
+danger signals to each other must have been made with their trunks
+and their ears; but we saw none of them, because all the animals
+were concealed from our view except when the two scouts of the
+herd were hunting for us.
+
+In captivity an elephant trumpets in protest, or through fear, or
+through rage; but I am obliged to confess that as yet I cannot
+positively distinguish one from the other.
+
+Once in the Zoological Park I heard our troublesome Indian
+elephant, Alice, roaring continuously as if in pain. It continued
+at such a rate that I hurried over to the Elephant House to
+investigate. And there I saw a droll spectacle. Keeper Richards
+had taken Alice out into her yard for exercise and had ordered
+her to follow him. And there he was disgustedly marching around
+the yard while Alice marched after him at an interval of ten
+paces, quite free and untrammeled, but all the while lustily
+trumpeting and roaring in indignant protest. The only point at
+which she was hurt was in her feelings.
+
+Two questions that came into public notice concerning the voices
+of two important American animals have been permanently settled
+by "the barnyard naturalists" of New York.
+
+The Voice of the American Bison. In 1907 the statement of George
+Catlin, to the effect that in the fall the bellowing of buffalo
+bulls on the plains resembled the muttering of distant thunder,
+was denied and severely criticized in a sportsman's magazine. On
+October 4 of that year, while we were selecting the fifteen bison
+to be presented to the Government, to found the Wichita National
+Bison Herd, four of us heard our best bull _bellow_ five
+times, while another did the same thing four times.
+
+The sound uttered was a deep-voiced roar,--not a grunt,--rising
+and falling in measured cadence, and prolonged about four or five
+seconds. It was totally different from the ordinary grunt of
+hunger, or the menace of an angry buffalo, which is short and
+sharp. In discussing the quality of the bellow, we agreed that it
+could properly be called a low roar. It is heard only in the
+rutting season,--the period described by Catlin,--and there is
+good reason to believe that Caitlin's description is perfectly
+correct.
+
+The Scream of the Puma. This is a subject that will not lie still.
+I presume it will recur every five years as long as pumas endure.
+Uncountable pages of controversial letters have been expended upon
+the question: "Does the puma ever scream, like a woman in
+distress?"
+
+The true answer is easy, and uncontestable by people whose minds
+are open to the rules of evidence.
+
+Yes; the adult female puma DOES scream,-_in the mating
+season_, whenever it comes. It is loud, piercing, prolonged,
+and has the agonized voice qualities of a boy or a woman screaming
+from the pain of a surgical operation. To one who does not know
+the source or the cause, it is nerve-racking. When heard in a
+remote wilderness it must be truly fearsome. It says "Ow-w-w-w!"
+over and over. We have heard it a hundred times or more, and it
+easily carries a quarter of a mile.
+
+The language of animals is a long and interesting subject,--so
+much so that here it is possible only to sketch out and suggest
+its foundations and scope. On birds alone, an entire volume should
+be written; but animal intelligence is a subject as far reaching
+as the winds of the earth.
+
+No man who ever saw high in the heavens a V-shaped flock of wild
+geese, or heard the honk language either afloat, ashore or in the
+air, will deny the spoken language of that species. If any one
+should do so, let him listen to the wild-goose wonder tales of
+Jack Miner, and hear him imitate (to perfection) the honk call of
+the gander at his pond, calling to wild flocks in the sky and
+telling them about the corn and safety down where he is.
+
+The woodpecker drums on the high and dry limb of a dead tree his
+resounding signal-call that is nothing more nor less (in our view)
+than so much sign language.
+
+It was many years ago that we first heard in the welcome days of
+early spring the resounding _"Boo-hoo-hoo"_ courting call of
+the cock pinnated grouse, rolling over the moist earth for a mile
+or more in words too plain to be misunderstood.
+
+The American magpie talks beautifully; but I regret to say that I
+do not understand a word of its language. One summer we had
+several fine specimens in the great flying-cage, with the big and
+showy waterfowl, condor, griffon vulture, ravens and crows. One of
+those magpies often came over to the side of the cage to talk to
+me, and as I believe, make complaints. Whether he complained about
+his big and bulky cagemates, or the keepers, or me, I could not
+tell; but I thought that his grievances were against the large
+birds. Whenever I climbed over the guard rail and stooped down, he
+would come close up to the wire, stand in one spot, and in a
+quiet, confidential tone talk to me earnestly and gesticulate with
+his head for five minutes straight. I have heard senile old men
+run on in low-voiced, unintelligible clack in precisely the same
+way. The modulations of that bird's voice, its inflections and its
+vocabulary were wonderful. From his manner a messenger from Mars
+might easily have inferred that the bird believed that every word
+of the discourse was fully understood.
+
+The lion roars, magnificently. The hyena "laughs"; the gray wolf
+gives a mournful howl, the coyote barks and howls, and the fox
+yaps. The elk bugles, the moose roars and bawls, in desire or
+defiance. The elephant trumpets or screams in the joy of good
+feeding, or in fear or rage; and it also rumbles deeply away down
+in its throat. The red squirrel barks and chatters, usually to
+scold some one whom he hates, but other small rodents know that
+silence is golden.
+
+The birds have the best voices of all creatures. They are the
+sweet singers of the animal world, and to the inquiring mind that
+field is a wonderland.
+
+The frogs are vociferous; and now if they were more silent they
+would last longer.
+
+Of all the reptiles known to me, only two utter vocal sounds,--the
+alligator and the elephant tortoise. The former roars or bellows,
+the latter grunts.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+THE MOST INTELLIGENT ANIMALS
+
+
+To the professional animal-man, year in and year out comes the
+eternal question, "Which are the most intelligent animals?"
+
+The question is entirely legitimate. What animals are the best
+exponents of animal intelligence?
+
+It seems to me that the numerous factors involved, and the
+comparisons that must be made, can best be expressed in figures.
+Opinions that are based upon only one or two sets of facts are not
+worth much. There are about ten factors to be taken into account
+and appraised separately.
+
+In order to express many opinions in a small amount of space, we
+submit a table of estimates and summaries, covering a few
+mammalian species that are representative of many. But, try as
+they will, it is not likely that any two animal men will set down
+the same estimates. It all depends upon the wealth or the poverty
+of first-hand, eye-witness evidence. When we enter the field of
+evidence that must stand in quotation marks, we cease to know
+where we will come out. We desire to state that nearly all of the
+figures in the attached table of estimates are based upon the
+author's own observations, made during a period of more than
+forty years of ups and downs with wild animals. ESTIMATES OF THE
+COMPARATIVE INTELLIGENCE AND ABILITY OF CERTAIN CONSPICUOUS WILD
+ANIMALS, BASED UPON KNOWN PERFORMANCES, OR THE ABSENCE OF THEM.
+[Footnote: To the author, correspondence regarding the reasons for
+these estimates is impossible.]
+
+[beginning of chart]
+
+Perfection in all=100 [list of categories below are written
+vertically above the columns, with the last column unnamed and
+representing a total score of animal intelligence/1000]
+
+Hereditary Knowledge Perceptive Faculties Original Thought Memory
+Reason Receptivity in Training Efficiency in Execution Nervous
+Energy Keenness of the Senses Use of the Voice
+
+Primates
+
+Chimpanzee . . . . . . . . .100 100 100 100 75 100 100 100 100 50 925
+ Orang-Utan . . . . . . . . .100 100 100 75 100 75 100 75 100 25 850
+ Gorilla. . . . . . . . . . . . .50 50 50 50 75 25 25 50 100 25 500
+
+Ungulates
+
+Indian Elephant . . . . . .100 100 100 100 100 100 100 75 50 25 850
+Rhinoceros. . . . . . . . .25 25 25 25 25 0 0 25 25 0 175
+ Giraffe . . . . . . . . . . . . .50 25 25 25 25 25 0 25 100 0 300
+ White-Tailed Deer . . .100 100 100 25 50 0  0 100 100 0 575
+ Big-Horn Sheep . . . . . .100 100 50 25 50 0 0 100 100 0 525
+ Mountain Goat. . . . . . .100 100 100 25 100 0  0 100 100 0 625
+ Domestic Horse. . . . . .100 100 100 75 75 75 75 100 100 50 850
+
+Carnivores
+
+Lion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .100 100 50 75 50  75 50 100 100 25 725
+ Tiger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .100 75 50 50 50 25 25 100 100 0 575
+ Grizzly Bear . . . . . . . . .100 100 50 25 50  75 50 75 100 25 725
+ Brown Bear (European)100 100 50 25 50 75 50 75 100 25 650
+Gray Wolf . . . . . . . . . . . 100 100 100 25 75 00 100 100 25 625
+ Coyote . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 75 50 25 50 0 0 75 100 25 500
+ Red Fox . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 100 50 75 100 0 0 100 100 25 650
+ Domestic Dog . . . . . . . . .50 100 75 75 75 75 100 100 100 100 850
+ Wolverine . . . . . . . . . . .100 100 100 25 100 0 75 100 100 0 700
+
+Beaver . . . . . . . . . . . . . .100 100 100 25 100  0 100 100 100 0 725
+
+
+According to the author's information and belief, _these are
+"the most intelligent" animals:_ The Chimpanzee is the most
+intelligent of all animals below man. His mind approaches most
+closely to that of man, and it carries him farthest upward toward
+the human level. He can learn more by training, and learn more
+easily, than any other animal.
+
+The Orang-Utan is mentally next to the chimpanzee.
+
+The Indian Elephant in mental capacity is third from man.
+
+The high-class domestic Horse is a very wise and capable animal;
+but this is chiefly due to its age-long association with man, and
+education by him. Mentally the wild horse is a very different
+animal, and in the intellectual scale it ranks with the deer and
+antelopes.
+
+The Beaver manifests, in domestic economy, more intelligence,
+mechanical skill and reasoning power than any other wild animal.
+
+The Lion is endowed with keen perceptive faculties, reasoning
+ability and judgment of a high order, and its mind is
+surprisingly receptive.
+
+The Grizzly Bear is believed to be the wisest of all bears.
+
+The Pack Rat (_Neotona_) is the intellectual phenomenon of
+the great group of gnawing animals. It is in a class by itself.
+
+The White Mountain Goat seems to be the wisest of all the mountain
+summit animals whose habits are known to zoologists and sportsmen.
+
+A high-class Dog is the animal that mentally is in closest touch
+with the mind, the feelings and the impulses of man; and it is the
+only one that can read a man's feelings from his eyes and his
+facial expression.
+
+The Marvelous Beaver. Let us consider this animal as an
+illuminating example of high-power intelligence.
+
+In domestic economy the beaver is the most intelligent of all
+living mammals. His inherited knowledge, his original thought, his
+reasoning power and his engineering and mechanical skill in
+constructive works are marvelous and beyond compare. In his
+manifold industrial activities, there is no other mammal that is
+even a good second to him. He builds dams both great and
+small, to provide water in which to live, to store food and to
+escape from his enemies. He builds air-tight houses of sticks and
+mud, either as islands, or on the shore. When he cannot live as a
+pond-beaver with a house he cheerfully becomes a river-beaver.
+He lives in a river-bank burrow when house-building in a pond
+is impossible; and he will cheerfully tunnel under a stone wall
+from one-pond monotony, to go exploring outside.
+
+[Illustration: CHRISTMAS AT THE
+PRIMATES' HOUSE Chimpanzees (with large ears) and orang-utans
+(small ears). The animal on the extreme right is an orang of the
+common caste]
+
+He cuts down trees, both small and large, and he makes them fall
+as he wishes them to fall. He trims off all branches, and leaves
+no "slash" to cumber the ground. He buries green branches, in
+great quantity, in the mud at the bottom of his pond, so that in
+winter he can get at them under a foot of solid ice. He digs
+canals, of any length he pleases, to float logs and billets of
+wood from hinterland to pond.
+
+If you are locating beavers in your own zoo, and are wise, you can
+induce beavers to build their dam where you wish it to be. This is
+how we did it!
+
+We dug out a pond of mud in order that the beavers might have a
+pond of water; and we wished the beavers to build a dam forty feet
+long, at a point about thirty feet from the iron fence where the
+brook ran out. On thinking it over we concluded that we could
+manage it by showing the animals where we wished them to go to
+work.
+
+We set a l2-inch plank on its edge, all the way across the dam
+site, and pegged it down. Above it the water soon formed a little
+pool and began to flow over the top edge in a very miniature
+waterfall. Then we turned loose four beavers and left them.
+
+The next morning we found a cart-load of sticks and fresh mud
+placed like a dam against the iron fence. In beaver language this
+said to us:
+
+"We would rather build our dam here,--if you don't mind. It will
+be easier for us, and quicker."
+
+We removed all their material; and in our language that action
+said: "No; we would rather have you build over the plank."
+
+The next night more mud and sticks piled against the fence said to
+us,
+
+"We really _insist_ upon building it here!"
+
+We made a second clearance of their materials, saying in effect:
+
+"You _shall not_ build against the fence! You _must_
+build where we tell you!"
+
+Thereupon, the beavers began to build over the plank, saying,
+
+"Oh, well, if you are going to make a fuss about it, we will let
+you have your way."
+
+So they built a beautiful water-tight dam precisely where we
+suggested it to them, and after that our only trouble was to keep
+them from overdoing the matter, and flooding the whole valley.
+
+I am not going to dwell upon the mind and manners of the beaver.
+The animal is well known. Three excellent books have been written
+and pictured about him, in the language that the General Reader
+understands. They are as follows: "The American Beaver and His
+Works," Lewis H. Morgan (1868); "The Romance of the Beaver," A. R.
+Dugmore (no date); "History and Traditions of the Canada Beaver,"
+H. T. Martin (1892).
+
+"Clever Hans," the "Thinking Horse." From 1906 to 1910 the world
+read much about a wonderful educated horse owned and educated by
+Herr von Osten, in Germany. The German scientists who first came
+in touch with "Hans" were quite bowled over by the discovery that
+that one horse could "think." The _Review of Reviews_ said,
+in 1910:
+
+"It may be recalled that Clever Hans knew figures and letters,
+colors and tones, the calendar and the dial, that he could count
+and read, deal with decimals and fractions, spell out answers to
+questions with his right hoof, and recognize people from having
+seen their photographs. In every case his 'replies' were given in
+the form of scrapings with his right forehoof.
+
+"Whether the questioner was von Osten, who had worked with him for
+seven years, or a man like Schillings, who was a complete
+stranger, seemed immaterial; and this went farthest, perhaps, in
+disposing of all talk of 'collusion' between master and beast."
+
+Now, by the bald records of the case the fact was fixed for all
+time that Hans was the most wonderful mental prodigy that ever
+bore the form of a four-footed animal. His learning and his
+performances were astounding, and even uncanny. I do not care how
+he was trained, nor by what process he received ideas and reacted
+to them! He was a phenomenon, and I doubt whether this world ever
+sees his like again. His mastery of figures alone, no matter how
+it was wrought, was enough to make any animal or trainer
+illustrious.
+
+But eventually Clever Hans came to grief. He was ostensibly
+thrown off his pedestal, in Germany, by human jealousy and
+egotism. Several industrious German scientists deliberately set
+to work to discredit him, and they stuck to it until they
+accomplished that task. The chief instrument in this was no less a
+man than the director of the "Psychological Institute" of the
+Berlin University, Professor Otto Pfungst. He found that when Hans
+was put on the witness stand and subjected to rigid cross
+examinations _by strangers_, his answers were due partly to
+_telepathy and hypnotic influence_! For example, the
+discovery was made that Hans could not always give the correct
+answer to a problem in figures unless it was known to the
+questioner himself.
+
+To Hans's inquisitors this discovery imparted a terrible shock. It
+did not look like "thinking" after all! The mental process was
+_different_ from the process of the German mind! The
+wonderful fact that Hans could remember and recognize and
+_reproduce_ the ten digits was entirely lost to view. At once
+a shout went up all over Germany,--in the scientific circle, that
+Hans was an "impostor," that he could not "think," and that his
+mind was nothing much after all.
+
+Poor Hans! The glory that should have been his, and imperishable,
+is gone. He was the victim of scientists of one idea, who had no
+sense of proportion. He truly WAS a thinking horse; and we are
+sure that there are millions of men whose minds could not be
+developed to the point that the mind of that "dumb" animal
+attained,--no, not even with the aid of hypnotism and telepathy.
+
+The bare fact that a horse _can_ be influenced by occult
+mental powers proves the close parallelism that exists between the
+brains of men and beasts. The Trap-Door Spider. Let no one
+suppose for one moment that animal mind and intelligence is
+limited to the brain-bearing vertebrates. The scope and activity
+of the notochord in some of the invertebrates present phenomena
+far more wonderful per capita than many a brain produces.
+Interesting books have been written, and more will be written
+hereafter, on the minds and doings of ants, bees, wasps, spiders
+and other insects.
+
+Consider the ways and means of the ant-lion of the East, and the
+trap-door spider of the western desert regions. As one object
+lesson from the insect world, I will flash upon the screen, for a
+moment only, the trap-door spider. This wonderful insect personage
+has been exhaustively studied by Mr. Raymond L. Ditmars, in the
+development of a series of moving pictures, and at my request he
+has contributed the following graphic description of this
+spider's wonderful work.
+
+"The trap-door spiders, inhabiting the warmer portions of both the
+Old and New Worlds, dig a deep tunnel in the soil, line this with
+a silken wallpaper, then construct a hinged door at the top so
+perfectly fitted and camouflaged with soil, that when it is closed
+there is no indication of the burrow. Moreover, the inside portion
+of the door of some species is so constructed that it may be
+"latched," there being two holes near the edge, precisely placed
+where the curved fangs may be inserted and the door held firmly
+closed. Also, the trap-door of a number of species is so designed
+as to be absolutely rain-proof, being bevelled and as accurately
+fitting a corresponding bevel of the tube as the setting of a
+compression valve of a gasolene engine.
+
+[Illustration: THE TRAP-DOOR
+SPIDER'S DOOR AND BURROW By R. L. Ditmars 1. The door closed. Its
+top carefully counterfeits the surrounding ground. 2. The door
+with silken hinge, held open by a needle. 3. The spider in its
+doorway, looking for prey. 4. Section of the burrow and trap-
+door.]
+
+"The study of a number of specimens of our southern California
+species, which builds the cork-type door, including observations
+of them at night, when they are particularly active, indicates
+that the construction of the tube involves other material than the
+silken lining employed by many burrowing spiders. In the
+excavation of the tube and retention of the walls, the spider
+appears to employ a glairy substance, which thoroughly saturates
+the soil and renders the interior of the tube of almost cement-
+like hardness. It is then plastered with a thick jet of silk from
+the spinning glands. This interior finishing process appears to
+be quite rapid, a burrow being readily lined within a couple of
+hours.
+
+"The construction of the trap-door is a far more complicated
+process, this convex, beautifully bevelled entrance with its hinge
+requiring real scientific skill. Judging from observations on a
+number of specimens, the work is done from the outside, the spider
+first spinning a net-like covering over the mouth of the tube.
+This is thickened by weaving the body over the net, each motion
+leaving a smoky trail of silk. Earth is then shoveled into the
+covering, the spider carefully pushing the particles toward the
+centre, which soon sags, and assumes the proper curvature, and
+automatically moulds against the bevelled walls of the tube.
+
+"The shoveling process must be nicely regulated to produce the
+proper bevel and thickness of the door. Then the cementing
+process is applied to the top, rendering the door a solid unit.
+From the actions of these spiders,--which often calmly rest an
+hour without a move,--it appears that the edges of the door are
+now subjected, by the stout and sharp fangs, to a cutting process
+like that of a can opener, leaving a portion of the marginal silk
+to act as a hinge. This hinge afterward receives some finishing
+touches, and the top of the door is either pebbled or finished
+with a few fragments of dead vegetation, cemented on, in order to
+exactly match the surrounding soil."
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+THE RIGHTS OF WILD ANIMALS
+
+
+Every harmless wild bird and mammal has the right to live out its
+life according to its destiny; and man is in honor bound to
+respect those rights. At the same time it is a mistake to regard
+each wild bird or quadruped as a sacred thing, which under no
+circumstances may be utilized by man. We are not fanatical Hindus
+of the castes which religiously avoid the "taking of life" of any
+kind, and gently push aside the flea, the centipede and the
+scorpion. The reasoning powers of such people are strictly
+limited, the same as those of people who are opposed to the
+removal by death of the bandits and murderers of the human race.
+
+The highest duty of a reasoning being is to reason. We have no
+moral or legal right to act like idiots, or to become a menace to
+society by protecting criminal animals or criminal men from
+adequate punishment. Like the tree that is known by its fruit,
+every alleged "reasoning being" is to be judged by the daily
+output of his thoughts.
+
+Toward wild life, our highest duty is to be sane and sensible, in
+order to be just, and to promote the greatest good for the
+greatest number. Be neither a Hindu fanatic nor a cruel game-
+butcher like a certain wild-animal slaughterer whom I knew, who
+while he was on earth earned for himself a place in the hottest
+corner of the hereafter, and quickly passed on to occupy it.
+
+The following planks constitute a good platform on which to base
+our relations with the wild animal world, and by which to regulate
+our duty to the creatures that have no means of defense against
+the persecutions of cruel men. They may be regarded as
+representing the standards that have been fixed by enlightened and
+humane civilization.
+
+THE WILD ANIMALS' BILL OF RIGHTS
+
+This Bill of Rights is to be copied and displayed conspicuously
+in all zoological parks and gardens, zoos and menageries; in all
+theatres and shows where animal performances are given, and in all
+places where wild animals and birds are trained, sold or kept for
+the pleasure of their owners.
+
+Article 1. In view of the nearness of the approach of the higher
+animals to the human level, no just and humane man can deny that
+those wild animals have certain rights which man is in honor bound
+to respect.
+
+Art. 2. The fact that God gave man "dominion over the beasts of
+the field" does not imply a denial of animal rights, any more than
+the supremacy of a human government conveys the right to oppress
+and maltreat its citizens.
+
+Art. 3. Under certain conditions it is justifiable for man to kill
+a limited number of the so-called game animals, on the same basis
+of justification that domestic animals and fowls may be killed for
+food.
+
+Art. 4. While the trapping of fur-bearing animals is a necessary
+evil, that evil must be minimized by reducing the sufferings of
+trapped animals to the lowest possible point, and by preventing
+wasteful trapping.
+
+Art. 5. The killing of harmless mammals or birds solely for
+"sport," and without utilizing them when killed, is murder; and no
+good and humane man will permit himself to engage in any such
+offenses against good order and the rights of wild creatures.
+
+Art. 6. Shooting at sea-going creatures from moving vessels,
+without any possibility of securing them if killed or wounded, is
+cruel, reprehensible, and criminal, and everywhere should be
+forbidden by ship captains, and also by law, under penalties.
+
+Art. 7. The extermination of a harmless wild animal species is a
+crime; but the regulated destruction of wild pests that have been
+proven guilty, is sometimes necessary and justifiable.
+
+Art. 8. No group or species of birds or mammals that is accused of
+offenses sufficiently grave to merit destruction shall be
+condemned undefended and unheard, nor without adequate evidence of
+a character which would be acceptable in a court of law.
+
+Art. 9. The common assumption that every bird or mammal that
+offends, or injures the property of any man, is necessarily
+deserving of death, is absurd and intolerable. The death penalty
+should be the last resort, not the first one!
+
+Art. 10. Any nation that fails adequately to protect its crop-and-
+tree-protecting birds deserves to have its fields and forests
+devastated by predatory insects.
+
+Art. 11. No person has any moral right to keep a wild mammal,
+bird, reptile or fish in a state of uncomfortable, unhappy or
+miserable captivity, and all such practices should be prevented by
+law, under penalty. It is entirely feasible for a judge to
+designate a competent person as a referee to examine and decide
+upon each case.
+
+Art. 12. A wild creature that cannot be kept in comfortable
+captivity should not be kept at all; and the evils to be guarded
+against are cruelly small quarters, too much darkness, too much
+light, uncleanliness, bad odors, and bad food. A fish in a glass
+globe, or a live bird in a cage the size of a collar-box is a case
+of cruelty.
+
+Art. 13. Every captive animal that is suffering hopelessly from
+disease or the infirmities of old age has the right to be
+painlessly relieved of the burdens of life.
+
+Art. 14. Every keeper or owner of a captive wild animal who
+through indolence, forgetfulness or cruelty permits a wild
+creature in his charge to perish of cold, heat, hunger or thirst
+because of his negligence, is guilty of a grave misdemeanor, and
+he should be punished as the evidence and the rights of captive
+animals demand.
+
+Art. 15. An animal in captivity has a right to do all the damage
+to its surroundings that it can do, and it is not to be punished
+therefor.
+
+Art. 16. The idea that all captive wild animals are necessarily
+"miserable" is erroneous, because some captive animals are better
+fed, better protected and are more happy in captivity than similar
+animals are in a wild state, beset by dangers and harassed by
+hunger and thirst. It is the opinion of the vast majority of
+civilized people that there is no higher use to which a wild bird
+or mammal can be devoted than to place it in perfectly comfortable
+captivity to be seen by millions of persons who desire to make
+its acquaintance.
+
+Art. 17. About ninety-five per cent of all the wild mammals seen
+in captivity were either born in captivity or captured when in
+their infancy, and therefore have no ideas of freedom, or visions
+of their wild homes; consequently their supposed "pining for
+freedom" often is more imaginary than real.
+
+Art. 18. A wild animal has no more inherent right to live a life
+of lazy and luxurious ease, and freedom from all care, than a man
+or woman has to live without work or family cares. In the large
+cities of the world there are many millions of toiling humans who
+are worse off per capita as to burdens and sorrows and joys than
+are the beasts and birds in a well kept zoological park. "Freedom"
+is comparative only, not absolute.
+
+Art. 19. While the use of trained animals in stage performances
+is not necessarily cruel, and while training operations are based
+chiefly upon kindness and reward, it is necessary that vigilance
+should be exercised to insure that the cages and stage quarters of
+such animals shall be adequate in size, properly lighted and
+acceptably ventilated, and that cruel punishments shall not be
+inflicted upon the animals themselves.
+
+Art. 20. The training of wild animals may, or may not, involve
+cruelties, according to the intelligence and the moral status of
+the trainer. This is equally true of the training of children, and
+the treatment of wives and husbands. A reasonable blow with a
+whip to a mean and refractory animal in captivity is not
+necessarily an act of cruelty. Every such act must be judged
+according to the evidence.
+
+Art. 21. It is unjust to proclaim that "all wild animal
+performances are cruel" and therefore should be prohibited by law.
+The claim is untrue, and no lawmaker should pay heed to it. Wild
+animal performances are no more cruel or unjust than men-and-women
+performances of acrobatics. Practically all trained animals are
+well fed and tended, they welcome their performances, and go
+through them with lively interest. Such performances, when good,
+have a high educational value,--but not to closed minds.
+
+Art. 22. Every bull-fight, being brutally unfair to the horses and
+the bull engaged and disgustingly cruel, is an unfit spectacle for
+humane and high-minded people, and no Christian man or woman can
+attend one without self-stultification.
+
+Art. 23. The western practice of "bulldogging," now permitted in
+some Wild West shows, is disgusting, degrading, and never should
+be permitted.
+
+Art. 24. The use of monkeys by organ-grinders is cruel, it is
+degrading to the monkeys, and should in all states be prohibited
+by law.
+
+Art. 25. The keeping of live fishes in glass globes nearly always
+ends in cruelty and suffering, and should everywhere be prohibited
+by law. A round glass straight-jacket is just as painful as any
+other kind.
+
+Art. 26. The sale and use of chained live chameleons as ornaments
+and playthings for idiotic or vicious men and children always
+means death by slow torture for the reptile, and should in all
+states be prohibited by law.
+
+
+
+
+II. MENTAL TRAITS OF WILD ANIMALS
+
+VI
+
+THE BRIGHTEST MINDS AMONG AMERICAN ANIMALS
+
+
+We repeat that _the most interesting features of a wild animal
+are its mind, its thoughts, and the results of its reasoning._
+Besides these, its classification, distribution and anatomy are of
+secondary importance; but at the same time they help to form the
+foundation on which to build the psychology of species and
+individuals. Let no student make the mistake of concluding that
+when he has learned an animal's place in nature there is nothing
+more to pursue.
+
+After fifty years of practical experience with wild animals of
+many species, I am reluctantly compelled to give the prize for
+greatest cunning and foresight _in self-preservation_ to the
+common brown rat,--the accursed "domestic" rat that has adopted
+man as his perpetual servant, and regards man's goods as his
+lawful prey. When all other land animals have been exterminated
+from the earth, the brown rat will remain, to harry and to rob the
+Last Man.
+
+The brown rat has persistently accompanied man all over the world.
+Millions have been spent in fighting him and the bubonic-plague
+flea that he cheerfully carries in his offensive fur. For him no
+place _that contains food_ is too hot or too cold, too wet or
+too dry. Many old sailors claim to believe that rats will desert
+at the dock an outward-bound ship that is fated to be lost at sea;
+but that certificate of superhuman foreknowledge needs a backing
+of evidence before it can be accepted.
+
+Of all wild animals, rats do the greatest number of "impossible"
+things. We have matched our wits against rat cunning until a
+madhouse yawned before us. Twice in my life all my traps and
+poisons have utterly failed, and left me faintly asking:
+_Are_ rats possessed of occult powers? Once the answer to
+that was furnished by an old he-one who left his tail in my steel
+trap, but a little later _caught himself_ in a trap-like
+space in the back of the family aeolian, and ignominiously died
+there,--a victim of his own error in judging distances without a
+tape line.
+
+Tomes might be written about the minds and manners of the brown
+rat, setting forth in detail its wonderful intelligence in quickly
+getting wise to new food, new shelter, new traps and new poisons.
+Six dead rats are, as a rule, sufficient to put any _new_
+trap out of business; but poisons and infections go farther before
+being found out. [Footnote: For home use, my best rat weapon is
+rough-on-rats, generously mixed with butter and spread liberally
+on very thin slices of bread. It has served me well in effecting
+clearances.]
+
+The championship for keen strategy in self-preservation belongs to
+the musk-oxen for their wolf-proof circle of heads and horns.
+Every musk-ox herd is a mutual benefit life insurance company.
+When a gaunt and hungry wolf-pack appears, the adult bull and cow
+musk-oxen at once form a close circle, with the calves and young
+stock in the centre. That deadly ring of lowered heads and sharp
+horns, all hung precisely right to puncture and deflate hostile
+wolves, is impregnable to fang and claw. The arctic wolves know
+this well. Mr. Stefansson says it is the settled habit of wolf
+packs of Banks Land to pass musk-ox herds without even provoking
+them to "fall in" for defense.
+
+Judging by the facts that Charles L. Smith and the Norboe brothers
+related to Mr. Phillips and me around our camp-fires in the
+Canadian Rockies, the wolverine is one of the most cunning wild
+animals of all North America. This is a large order; for the gray
+wolf and grizzly bear are strong candidates for honors in that
+contest.
+
+The greatest cunning of the wolverine is manifested in robbing
+traps, stealing the trapper's food and trap-baits, and at the same
+time avoiding the traps set for him. He is wonderfully expert in
+springing steel traps for the bait or prey there is in them,
+without getting caught himself. He will follow up a trap line for
+miles, springing all traps and devouring all baits as he goes.
+Sometimes in sheer wantonness he will throw a trap into a river,
+and again he will bury a trap in deep snow. Dead martens in traps
+are savagely torn from them. Those that can not be eaten on the
+spot are carried off and skilfully cached under two or three feet
+of snow.
+
+Trapper Smith once set a trap for a wolverine, and planted close
+behind it a young moose skull with some flesh upon it. The
+wolverine came in the night, started at a point well away from the
+trap, dug a tunnel through six feet of snow, fetched up well
+behind the trap,--and triumphantly dragged away the head through
+his tunnel.
+
+From the testimony of W. H. Wright, of Spokane, in his interesting
+book on "The Grizzly Bear," and for other reasons, I am convinced
+that the Rocky Mountain silver-tip grizzly is our brightest North
+American animal, and very keen of nose, eye, ear and brain. Mr.
+Wright says that "the grizzly bear far excels in cunning any other
+animal found throughout the Rocky Mountains, and, for that matter,
+he far excels them all combined." While the last clause is a large
+order, I will not dispute the opinion of a man of keen
+intelligence who has lived much among the most important and
+interesting wild animals of the Rockies.
+
+In the Bitter Root Mountains Mr. Wright and his hunting party once
+set a bear trap for a grizzly, in a pen of logs, well baited with
+fresh meat. On the second day they found the pen demolished, the
+bait taken out, and everything that was movable piled on the top
+of the trap.
+
+The trap was again set, this time loosely, under a bed of moss.
+The grizzly came and joyously ate all the meat that was scattered
+around the trap, but the moss and the trap were left untouched.
+And then followed a major operation in bear trapping. A mile away
+there was a steep slope of smooth rock, bounded at its foot by a
+creek. On one side was a huge tangle of down timber, on the other
+side loomed some impassable rocks; and a tiny meadow sloped away
+at the top. The half-fleshed carcasses of two dead elk were thrown
+half way down the rock slide, to serve as a bait. On the two sides
+two bear guns were set, and to their triggers were attached two
+long silk fish-lines, stretched taut and held parallel to each
+other, extending across the rocky slope. The idea was that the
+bear could not by any possibility reach the bait from above or
+below, without setting off at least one gun, and getting a bullet
+through his shoulders.
+
+On the first night, no guns went off. The next morning it was
+found that the bear had crossed the stream and climbed straight up
+toward the bait until he reached the first fish-line; where he
+stopped. Without pressing the string sufficiently to set off its
+gun, he followed it to the barrier of trees. Being balked there,
+he turned about, retraced his steps carefully and followed the
+string to the barrier of rocks. Being blocked there, he back-
+tracked down the slide and across the stream, over the way he
+came. Then he widely circled the whole theatre, and came down
+toward the bait from the little meadow at its top of the slide.
+
+Presently he reached the upper fish-line, twelve feet away from
+the first one. First he followed this out to the log barrier, then
+back to the rock ledge that was supposed to be unclimbable. There
+he scrambled up the "impossible" rocks, negotiated the ledge foot
+by foot, and successfully got around the end of line No. 2.
+Getting between the two lines he sailed out across the slope to
+the elk carcasses, feasted sumptuously, and then meandered out
+the way he came, without having disturbed a soul.
+
+All this was done at night, and in darkness; and presumably that
+bear is there to this day, alive and well. No wonder Mr. Wright
+has a high opinion of the grizzly bear as a thinking animal.
+
+In hiding their homes and young, either in burrows or in nests on
+the ground, wild rabbits and hares are wonderfully skilful, even
+under new conditions. Being quite unable to fight, or even to dig
+deeply, they are wholly dependent upon their wits in keeping their
+young alive by hiding them. Thanks to their keenness in
+concealment, the gray rabbit is plentiful throughout the eastern
+United States in spite of its millions of enemies. Is it not
+wonderful? The number killed by hunters last year in Pennsylvania
+was about 3,500,000!
+
+The most amazing risk that I ever saw taken by a rabbit was made
+by a gray rabbit that nested in a shallow hole in the middle of a
+lawn-mower lawn east of the old National Museum building in
+Washington. The hollow was like that of a small wash-basin, and
+when at rest in it with her young ones the neutral gray back of
+the mother came just level with the top of the ground. At the
+last, when her young were almost large enough to get out and go
+under their own steam, a lawn-mower artist chanced to look down
+at the wrong moment and saw the family. Evidently that mother
+believed that the boldest ventures are those most likely to win.
+
+Among the hoofed and horned animals of North America the white-
+tailed deer is the shrewdest in the recognition of its enemies,
+the wisest in the choice of cover, and in measures for self-
+preservation. It seems at first glance that the buck is more keen-
+witted than the doe; but this is a debatable question. Throughout
+the year the buck thinks only of himself. During fully one-half
+the year the doe is burdened by the cares of motherhood, and the
+paramount duty of saving her fawns from their numerous enemies.
+This, I am quite sure, is the handicap which makes it so much
+easier to kill a doe in the autumn hunting season than to bag a
+fully antlered and sophisticated buck who has only himself to
+consider.
+
+The white-tailed deer saves its life by skulking low in timber and
+thick brush. This is why it so successfully resists the
+extermination that has almost swept the mule deer, antelope,
+white goat, moose and elk from all the hunting-grounds of the
+United States. Thanks to its alertness in seeing its enemies
+first, its skill and quickness in hiding, _and its mental
+keenness in recognizing and using deer sanctuaries,_ the white-
+tailed or "Virginia" deer will outlive all the other hoofed
+animals of North America. In Pennsylvania they know enough to rush
+for the wire-bounded protected area whenever the hunters appear.
+That state has twenty-six such deer sanctuaries,--well filled
+with deer.
+
+The moose and caribou dwell upon open or half-open ground, and are
+at the mercy of the merciless long-range rifles. Their keenness
+does not count much against rifles that can shoot and kill at a
+quarter of a mile. In the rutting season the bull moose of Maine
+or New Brunswick is easily deceived by the "call" of a birch-bark
+megaphone in the hands of a moose hunter who imitates the love
+call of the cow moose so skilfully that neither moose nor man can
+detect the falsity of the lure.
+
+The mountain sheep is wide-eyed, alert and ready to run, but he
+dwells in exposed places from the high foothills up to the
+mountain summits, and now even the most bungling hunter can find
+him and kill him at long range. In the days of black powder and
+short ranges the sheep had a chance to escape; but now he has none
+whatever. He has keener vision and more alertness than the goat,
+but as a real life-saving factor that amounts to nothing! Wild
+sheep are easily and quickly exterminated.
+
+The mountain goat has no protection except elevation and
+precipitous rocks, and to the hunter who has the energy to climb
+up to him he, too, is easy prey. Usually his biped enemy finds him
+and attacks him in precipitous mountains, where running and hiding
+are utterly impossible. When discovered on a ledge two feet wide
+leading across the face of a precipice, poor Billy has nothing to
+do but to take the bullets as they come until he reels and falls
+far down to the cruel slide-rock. He has a wonderful mind, but its
+qualities and its usefulness belong in Chapter XIII.
+
+Warm-Coated Animals Avoid "Fresh Air." On this subject there is a
+strange divergence of reasoning power between the wild animals of
+cold countries and the sleeping-porch advocates of today.
+
+Even the most warm-coated of the fur-bearing animals, such as the
+bears, foxes, beavers, martens and mink, and also the burrowing
+rodents, take great pains to den up in winter just as far from the
+"fresh air" of the cold outdoors as they can attain by deep
+denning or burrowing. The prairie-dog not only ensconces himself
+in a cul-de-sac at the end of a hole fourteen feet deep and long,
+but as winter sets in he also tightly plugs up the mouth of his
+den with moist earth. When sealed up in his winter den the black
+bear of the north draws his supply of fresh air through a hole
+about one inch in diameter, or less.
+
+But the human devotees of fresh air reason in the opposite
+direction. It is now the regular thing for mothers to open wide to
+the freezing air of out-doors either one or all the windows of the
+rooms in which their children sleep, giving to each child enough
+fresh air to supply ten full-grown elephants, or twenty head of
+horses. And the final word is the "sleeping-porch!" It matters not
+how deadly damp is the air along with its 33 degrees of cold, or
+the velocity of the wind, the fresh air must be delivered. The
+example of the fat and heavily furred wild beast is ignored; and I
+just wonder how many people in the United States, old and young,
+have been killed, or permanently injured, by fresh air, during the
+last fifteen years.
+
+And furthermore. Excepting the hoofed species, it is the universal
+rule of the wild animals of the cold-winter zones of the earth
+that the mother shall keep her helpless young close beside her in
+the home nest and keep them warm partly by the warmth of her own
+body. The wild fur-clad mother does not maroon her helpless
+offspring in an isolated cot in a room apart, upon a thin mattress
+and in an atmosphere so cold that it is utterly impossible for the
+poor little body and limbs to warm it and keep it warm. Yet many
+human mothers do just that, and some take good care to provide a
+warmer atmosphere for themselves than they joyously force upon
+their helpless infants.
+
+No dangerous fads should be forced upon defenseless children or
+animals.
+
+A proper amount of fresh air is very desirable, but the intake of
+a child is much less than that of an elephant. Besides, if Nature
+had intended that men should sleep outdoors in winter, with the
+moose and caribou, we would have been furnished with ruminant
+pelage and fat.
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+KEEN BIRDS AND DULL MEN
+
+
+If all men could know how greatly the human species varies from
+highest to lowest, and how the minds and emotions of the lowest
+men parallel and dove-tail with those of the highest quadrupeds
+and birds, we might be less obsessed with our own human ego, and
+more appreciative of the intelligence of animals.
+
+A thousand times in my life my blood has been brought to the
+boiling point by seeing or reading of the cruel practices of
+ignorant and vicious men toward animals whom they despised because
+of their alleged standing "below man." By his vicious and cruel
+nature, many a man is totally unfitted to own, or even to
+associate with, dogs, horses and monkeys. Many persons are born
+into the belief that every man is necessarily a "lord of
+creation," and that all animals per se are man's lawful prey. In
+the vicious mind that impression increases with age. Minds of the
+better classes can readily learn by precept or by reasoning from
+cause to effect the duty of man to observe and defend the God-
+given rights of animals.
+
+It was very recently that I saw on the street a group that
+represented man's attitude toward wild animals. It consisted of
+an unclean and vicious-looking man in tramp's clothing, grinding
+an offensive hand-organ and domineering over a poor little
+terrorized "ringtail" monkey. The wretched mite from the jungle
+was encased in a heavy woolen straight-jacket, and there was a
+strap around its loins to which a stout cord was attached, running
+to the Root of All Evil. The pavement was hot, but there with its
+bare and tender feet on the hot concrete, the sad-eyed little waif
+painfully moved about, peering far up into the faces of passers-by
+for sympathy, but all the time furtively and shrinkingly watching
+its tormentor. Every now and then the hairy old tramp would jerk
+the monkey's cord, each time giving the frail creature a violent
+bodily wrench from head to foot. I think that string was jerked
+about forty times every hour.
+
+And that exhibition of monkey torture in a monkey hell continues
+in summer throughout many states of our country,--because "it
+pleases the children!" The use of monkeys with hand-organs is a
+cruel outrage upon the monkey tribe, and no civilized state or
+municipality should tolerate it. I call upon all humane persons to
+put an end to it.
+
+As an antidote to our vaulting human egotism, we should think
+often upon the closeness of mental contact between the highest
+animals and the lowest men. In drawing a parallel between those
+two groups, there are no single factors more valuable than the
+home, and the family food supply. These hark back to the most
+primitive instincts of the vertebrates. They are the bedrock
+foundations upon which every species rests. As they are stable or
+unstable, good or bad, so lives or dies the individual, and the
+species also.
+
+In employing the term "highest animals" I wish to be understood as
+referring to the warm-blooded vertebrates, and not merely the apes
+and monkeys that both structurally and mentally are nearest to
+man.
+
+Throughout my lifetime I have been by turns amazed, entertained
+and instructed by the marvelous intelligence and mechanical skill
+of small mammals in constructing burrows, and of certain birds in
+the construction of their nests. Today the hanging nest of the
+Baltimore oriole is to me an even greater wonder than it was when
+I first saw one over sixty years ago. Even today the mechanical
+skill involved in its construction is beyond my comprehension. My
+dull brain can not figure out the processes by which the bird
+begins to weave its hanging purse at the tip end of the most
+unstable of all earthly building sites,--a down-hanging elm-tree
+branch that is swayed to and fro by every passing breeze. The
+situation is so "impossible" that thus far no moving picture
+artist has ever caught and recorded the process.
+
+Take in your hand a standard oriole nest, and examine it
+thoroughly. First you will note that it is very strong, and
+thoroughly durable. It can stand the lashings of the fiercest
+gales that visit our storm-beaten shore.
+
+How long would it take a man to unravel that nest, wisp by wisp,
+and resolve it into a loose pile of materials? Certainly not less
+than an entire day. Do you think that even your skilful fingers,--
+unassisted by needles,--could in two days, or in three, weave of
+those same materials a nest like that, that would function as did
+the original? I doubt it. The materials consist of long strips of
+the thin inner bark of trees, short strings, and tiny grass stems
+that are long, pliable and tough. Who taught the oriole how to
+find and to weave those rare and hard-to-find materials? And how
+did it manage all that weaving with its beak only? Let the wise
+ones answer, if they can; for I confess that I can not!
+
+Down in Venezuela, in the delta of the Orinoco River, and
+elsewhere, lives a black and yellow bird called the giant cacique
+(pronounced cay-seek'), which as a nest-builder far surpasses our
+oriole. Often the cacique's hanging nest is from four to six feet
+long. The oriole builds to escape the red squirrels, but the
+cacique has to reckon with the prehensile-tailed monkeys.
+
+Sometimes a dozen caciques will hang their nests in close
+proximity to a wasps' nest, as if for additional protection. A
+cacique's nest hangs like a grass rope, with a commodious purse at
+its lower end, entered by a narrow perpendicular slit a foot or so
+above the terminal facilities. It is impossible to achieve one of
+these nests without either shooting off the limb to which it
+hangs, or felling the tree. If it hangs low enough a charge of
+coarse shot usually will cut the limb, but if high, cutting it down
+with a rifle bullet is a more serious matter.
+
+[Illustration with caption: HANGING NEST OF THE BALTIMORE ORIOLE
+(From the "American Natural History")]
+
+[Illustration with caption: GREAT HANGING NESTS OF THE CRESTED
+CACIQUE As seen in the delta of the Orinoco Rover, Venezuela.]
+
+To our Zoological Park visitors the African weaver birds are a
+wonder and a delight. Orioles and caciques do not build nests in
+captivity, but the weavers blithely transfer their activities to
+their spacious cage in our tropical-bird house. The bird-men keep
+them supplied with raffia grass, and they do the rest. Fortunately
+for us, they weave nests for fun, and work at it all the year
+round! Millions of visitors have watched them doing it. To
+facilitate their work the upper half of their cage is judiciously
+supplied with tree-branches of the proper size and architectural
+slant. The weaving covers many horizontal branches. Sometimes a
+group of nests will be tied together in a structure four feet
+long; and it branches up, or down, or across, seemingly without
+rhyme or reason.
+
+Some of the weavers, which inhabit Africa, Malayana and Australia,
+are "communal" nest-builders. They build colonies of nests, close
+together. Imagine twenty-five or more Baltimore orioles massing
+their nests together on one side of a single tree, in a genuine
+village. That is the habit of some of the weaver birds;--and this
+brings us to what is called the most wonderful of all
+manifestations of house-building intelligence among birds. It is
+the community house of the little sociable weaver-bird of South
+Africa (_Philetoerus socius_). Having missed seeing the work
+of this species save in museums, I will quote from the Royal
+Natural History, written by the late Dr. Richard Lydekker, an
+excellent description: --This species congregates in large flocks,
+many pairs incubating their eggs under the same roof, which is
+composed of cartloads of grass piled on a branch of some camel-
+thorn tree in one enormous mass of an irregular umbrella shape,
+looking like a miniature haystack and almost solid, but with the
+under surface (which is nearly flat) honeycombed all over with
+little cavities, which serve not only as places for incubation,
+but also as a refuge against rain and wind.
+
+"They are constantly being repaired by their active little
+inhabitants. It is curious that even the initiated eye is
+constantly being deceived by these dome-topped structures, since
+at a distance they closely resemble native huts. The nesting-
+chambers themselves are warmly lined with feathers."
+
+Here must we abruptly end our exhibits of the intelligence of a
+few humble little birds as fairly representative of the wonderful
+mental ability and mechanical skill so common in the ranks of the
+birds of the world. It would be quite easy to write a volume on
+The Architectural Skill of Birds!
+
+Now, let us look for a moment into the house-building intelligence
+and skill of some of the lower tribes of men. Out of the multitude
+of exhibits available I will limit myself to three, widely
+separated. In the first place, the habitations of the savage and
+barbaric tribes are usually the direct result of their own mental
+and moral deficiencies. The Eskimo is an exception, because his
+home and its location are dictated by the hard and fierce
+circumstances which dictate to him what he must do. Often he is
+compelled to move as his food supply moves. The Cliff-Dweller
+Indian of the arid regions of the Southwest was forced to cliff-
+dwell, in order to stave off extermination by his enemies. Under
+that spur he became a wonderful architect and engineer.
+
+For present purposes we are concerned with three savage tribes
+which might have been rich and prosperous agriculturists or
+herdsmen had they developed sufficient intelligence to see the
+wisdom of regular industry.
+
+Consider first the lowest of three primitive tribes that inhabit
+the extreme southern point of Patagonia, whose real estate
+holdings front on the Strait of Magellan. That region is treeless,
+rocky, windswept, cold and inhospitable. I can not imagine a place
+better fitted for an anarchist penal colony. North of it lie
+plains less rigorous, and by degrees less sterile, and finally
+there are lands quite habitable by cattle-and-crop-growing men.
+
+But those three tribes elect to stick to the worst spot in South
+America. The most primitive is the tribe of "canoe Indians" of
+Tierra del Fuego, which probably represents the lowest rung of the
+human ladder. Beside them the cave men of 30,000 years ago were
+kings and princes. Their only rivals seem to be the Poonans of
+Central Borneo, who, living in a hot country, make no houses or
+shelters of any kind, and have no clothing but a long strip of
+bark cloth around the loins.
+
+The Fuegians have long been known to mariners and travellers. They
+inhabit a region that half the year is bleak, cold and raw, but
+they make nothing save the rudest of the rude in canoes--of rough
+slabs tied together and caulked _with moss,_--and rough bone-
+pointed spears, bows, arrows and paddles. Their only clothing
+consists of skins of the guanacos loosely hung from the neck, and
+flapping over the naked and repulsive body. They make no houses,
+and on shore their only shelters from the wind and snow and
+chilling rains are rabbit-like forms of brush, broken off by hand.
+
+These people are lower in the scale of intelligence than any wild
+animal species known to me; for they are mentally too dull and low
+to maintain themselves on a continuing basis. Their hundred years
+of contact with man has taught them little; and numerically they
+are decreasing so rapidly that the world will soon see the
+absolute finish of the tribe.
+
+In the best of the three tribes, the Tchuelclus, the birth rate is
+so low that within recent times the tribe has diminished from
+about 5,000 to a remnant of about 500.
+
+Now, have those primitive creatures "immortal souls?" Are they
+entitled to call chimpanzees, elephants, bears and dogs "lower
+animals?" Do they "think," or "reason," any more than the animals
+I have named?
+
+It is a far cry from the highest to the lowest of the human race;
+and we hold that the highest animals intellectually are higher
+than the lowest men.
+
+Now go with me for a moment to the lofty and dense tropical forest
+in the heart of the Territory of Selangor, in the Malay Peninsula.
+That forest is the home of the wild elephant, rhinoceros and
+sladang. And there dwells a jungle tribe called the Jackoons, some
+members of which I met at their family home, and observed
+literally in their own ancestral tree. Their house was not wholly
+bad, but it might have been 100 per cent better. It was merely a
+platform of small poles, placed like a glorified bird's nest in
+the spreading forks of a many-branched tree, about twenty feet
+from the ground. The main supports were bark-lashed to the large
+branches of the family tree. Over this there was a rude roof of
+long grass, which had a fairly intelligent slope. As a shelter
+from rain, the Jackoon house left much to be desired. The scanty
+loin cloths of the habitants knew no such thing as wash-day or
+line. With all its drawbacks, however, this habitation was far
+more adequate to the needs of its builders than the cold brush
+rabbit-forms of the Patagonian canoe Indians.
+
+We now come to a tribe which has reduced the problem of housing
+and home life to its lowest common denominator. The Poonans of
+Central Borneo, discovered and described by Carl Bock, build _no
+houses of any kind,_ not even huts of green branches; and their
+only overture toward the promotion of personal comfort in the home
+is a five-foot grass mat spread upon the sodden earth, to lie upon
+when at rest. And this, in a country where in the so-called "dry
+season" it rains half the time, and in the "wet season" all the
+time.
+
+The Poonans have rudely-made spears for taking the wild pig, deer
+and smaller game, their clothes consist of bark cloth, around the
+loins only. They know no such thing as agriculture, and they live
+off the jungle.
+
+It was said some years ago that a similarly primitive jungle tribe
+of Ceylon, known as the Veddahs, could count no more than five,
+that they could not comprehend "day after to-morrow," and that
+their vocabulary was limited to about 200 words.
+
+It is very probable that the language of the Poonans and the
+Jackoons is equally limited. And what are we to conclude from
+all the foregoing? Briefly, I should say that the architectural
+skill of the orioles, the caciques and the weaver birds is greater
+than that of the South Patagonia native, the Jackoon and the
+Poonan. I should say that those bird homes yield to their makers
+more comfort and protection, and a better birth-rate, than are
+yielded by the homes of those ignorant, unambitious and
+retrogressive tribes of men now living and thinking, and supposed
+to be possessed of reasoning powers. If the whole truth could be
+known, I believe it would be found that the stock of ideas
+possessed and used by the groups of highly-endowed birds would
+fully equal the ideas of such tribes of simple-minded men as those
+mentioned. If caught young, those savages could be trained by
+civilized men, and taught to perform many tricks, but so can
+chimpanzees and elephants.
+
+Curiously enough, it is a common thing for even the higher types
+of civilized men to make in home-building just as serious mistakes
+as are made by wild animals and savages. For example, among the
+men of our time it is a common mistake to build in the wrong
+place, to build entirely too large or too ugly, and to build a
+Colossal Burden instead of a real Home. From many a palace there
+stands forth the perpetual question: "_Why_ did he do it?"
+
+Any reader who at any time inclines toward an opinion that the
+author is unduly severe on the mentality of the human race, even
+as it exists today in the United States, is urged to read in the
+_Scientific Monthly_ for January, 1922, an article by
+Professor L. M. Tennan entitled "Adventures in Stupidity.--A
+Partial Analysis of the Intellectual Inferiority of a College
+Student." He should particularly note the percentages on page 34
+in the second paragraph under the subtitle "The Psychology of
+Stupidity."
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+THE MENTAL STATUS OF THE ORANG-UTAN
+
+
+My first ownership of a live orang-utan began in 1878, in the
+middle of the Simujan River, Borneo, where for four Spanish
+dollars I became the proud possessor of a three-year old male. No
+sooner was the struggling animal deposited in the bottom of my own
+boat than it savagely seized the calf of my devoted leg and
+endeavored to bite therefrom a generous cross section. My leggings
+and my leech stockings saved my life. That implacable little beast
+never gave up; and two days later it died,--apparently to spite
+me.
+
+My next orang was a complete reverse of No. 1. He liked not the
+Dyaks who brought him to me, but in the first moment of our
+acquaintance he adopted me as his foster-father, and loved me like
+a son. Throughout four months of jungle vicissitudes he stuck to
+me. He was a high-class orang,--and be it known that many orangs
+are thin-headed scrubs, who never amount to anything. His skull
+was wide, his face was broad, and he had a dome of thought like a
+statesman. He had a fine mind, and I am sure I could have taught
+him everything that any ape could learn.
+
+During the four months that he lived with me I taught him, almost
+without effort, many things that were necessary in our daily life.
+Even the Dyaks recognized the fact that the "Old Man" was an orang
+(or "mias") of superior mind, and some of them traveled far to see
+him. Unfortunately the exigencies of travel and work compelled me
+to present him to an admiring friend in India. Mr. Andrew Carnegie
+and his then partner, Mr. J. W. Vandevorst, convoyed my Old Man
+and another small orang from Singapore to Colombo, Ceylon, whence
+they were shipped on to Madras, received there by my old friend A.
+G. R. Theobald,--and presented at the court of the Duke of
+Buckingham.
+
+Up to a comparatively recent date, the studies of the
+psychologists that have been devoted to the minds of animals below
+man, have been chiefly concerned with low and common types.
+Comparatively few investigators have found it possible to make
+extensive and prolonged observations of the most intelligent wild
+animals of the world, even in zoological gardens, and their
+observations on wild animals in a state of nature seem to have
+been even more circumscribed. I know only three who have studied
+any of the great apes.
+
+In attempting to fathom the mental capacity and the mental
+processes of some of the highest mammals, there is the same
+superior degree of interest attaching to the study of wild species
+that the ethnologist finds in the study of savage races of men
+that have been unspoiled by civilization. Obviously, it is more
+interesting to fathom the mind of a creature in an absolute state
+of nature than of one whose ancestors have been bred and reared in
+the trammels of domestication and for many successive generations
+have bowed to the will of man. The natural fury of the Atlantic
+walrus, when attacked, is much more interesting as a psychologic
+study than is the inbred rage of the bull-dog; and the remarkable
+defensive tactics of the musk-ox far surpass in interest the
+vagaries of range cattle.
+
+For several reasons, the great apes, and particularly the
+chimpanzees and orang-utans, are the most interesting subjects for
+psychologic study of all the wild-animal species with which the
+writer is acquainted. Primarily this is due to the fact that
+intellectually and temperamentally, as well as anatomically,
+these animals stand very near to man himself, and closely resemble
+him. The great apes mentioned can give visible expression to a
+wide range of thoughts and emotions,
+
+The voice of the adult orang-utan is almost absent, and only
+sufficient to display on rare occasions. What little there is of
+it, in animals over six years of age, is very deep and guttural,
+and may best be described as a deep-bass roar. Under excitement
+the orang can produce a roar by inhalation. Young orangs under two
+years of age often whine, or shriek or scream with anger, like
+excited human children, but with their larger growth that vocal
+power seems to leave them.
+
+Despite the difference in temperament and quickness in delivery, I
+regard the measure of the orang-utan's mental capacity as being
+equal to that of the chimpanzee; but the latter is, and always
+will remain, the more alert and showy animal. The superior feet of
+the chimpanzee in bipedal work is for that species a great
+advantage, and the longer toes of the orang are a handicap.
+Although the orang's sanguine temperament is far more comforting
+to a trainer than the harum-scarum nervous vivacity of the
+chimpanzee, the value of the former is overbalanced, on the stage,
+by the superior acting of the chimp. For these reasons the
+trainers generally choose the chimp for stage education.
+
+The chimpanzee is not only nervous and quick in thought and in
+action, but it is equally so _in temper._ It will play with
+any good friend to almost any extent, but the moment it suspects
+malicious unfairness, or what it regards as a "mean trick," it
+instantly becomes angry and resentful. Once when I attempted to
+take from our large black-faced chimpanzee, called Soko, a small
+lump of rubber which I feared she might swallow, my efforts were
+kindly but firmly thwarted. At last, when I diverted her by small
+offerings of chocolate, and at the right moment sought by a
+strategic movement to snatch the rubber from her, the palpable
+unfairness of the attempt caused the animal instantly to fly into
+a towering passion, and seek to wreak vengeance upon me. Her lips
+drew far back in a savage snarl, and she denounced my perfidy by
+piercing cries of rage and indignation. She also did her utmost to
+seize and drag me forcibly within reach of her teeth, for the
+punishment which she felt that I deserved.
+
+A large male orang-utan named Dohong, under a similar test,
+revealed a very different mental attitude. He dexterously snatched
+a valuable watch-charm from a visitor who stood inside the railing
+of his cage, and fled with it to the top of his balcony. As
+quickly as possible I thrust my handkerchief between the bars, and
+waved it vigorously, to attract him. At once the animal came down
+to me, to secure another trophy, and before he realized his
+position I successfully snatched the charm from him, and restored
+it unharmed to its owner. Dohong seemed to regard the episode as a
+good joke. Without manifesting any resentment he turned a
+somersault on his straw, then climbed upon his trapeze and began
+to perform, as if nothing in particular had occurred.
+
+The orang is distinctly an animal of more serene temper and more
+philosophic mind than the chimpanzee. This has led some authors
+erroneously to pronounce the orang an animal of morose and
+sluggish disposition, and mentally inferior to the chimpanzee.
+After a close personal acquaintance with about forty captive
+orangs of various sizes, I am convinced that the facts do not
+warrant that conclusion. The orang-utans of the New York
+Zoological Park certainly have been as cheerful in disposition, as
+fond of exercise and as fertile in droll performances as our
+chimpanzees. Even though the mind of the chimpanzee does act more
+quickly than that of its rival, and even though its movements are
+usually more rapid and more precise, the mind of the orang carries
+that animal precisely as far. Moreover, in its native jungles the
+orang habitually builds for itself a very comfortable nest on
+which to rest and sleep, which the chimpanzee ordinarily does not
+do.
+
+I think that the exact mental status of an anthropoid ape is best
+revealed by an attempt to train it to do some particular thing, in
+a manner that the trainer elects. Usually about five lessons,
+carefully observed, will afford a good index of the pupil's mental
+capabilities. Some chimpanzees are too nervous to be taught, some
+are too obstinate, and others are too impatient of restraint. Some
+orang-utans are hopelessly indifferent to the business in hand,
+and refuse to become interested in it. I think that no orang is
+too dull to learn to sit at a table, and eat with the utensils
+that are usually considered sacred to man's use, but the majority
+of them care only for the food, and take no interest in the
+function. On the other hand, the average chimpanzee is as restless
+as a newly-caught eel, and its mind is dominated by a desire to
+climb far beyond the reach of restraining hands, and to do almost
+anything save that which is particularly desired.
+
+Among the twenty or more orangs which up to 1922 have been
+exhibited in the Zoological Park, two stand out with special
+prominence, by reason of their unusual mental qualities. They
+differed widely from each other. One was a born actor and
+imitator, who loved human partnership in his daily affairs. The
+other was an original thinker and reasoner, with a genius for
+invention, and at all times impatient of training and restraint.
+The first was named Rajah, the latter was called Dohong.
+
+Rajah was a male orang, and about four years of age when received
+by us. His high and broad forehead, large eyes and general breadth
+of cranium and jaw marked him at once as belonging to the higher
+caste of orangs. Dealers and experts have no difficulty in
+recognizing at one glance an orang that has a good brain and good
+general physique from those which are thin-headed, narrow-jawed,
+weak in body and unlikely to live long.
+
+At the Zoological Park we have tested out the orang-utan's
+susceptibility to training, and proven that the task is so simple
+and easy that even amateurs can accomplish much in a short time.
+Desiring that several of our orangs should perform in public, we
+instructed the primate keepers to proceed along certain lines and
+educate them to that idea. Naturally, the performance was laid out
+to match our own possibilities. In a public park, where only a
+very little time can be devoted to training, we do not linger long
+over an animal that is either stupid or obstinate. Those which
+cannot be trained easily and quickly are promptly set aside as
+ineligible.
+
+Without any great amount of labor, and with no real difficulty,
+our orangs were trained to perform the following simple acts:
+
+1. To sit at table, and eat and drink like humans. This involved
+eating sliced bananas with a fork, pouring out milk from a teapot
+into a teacup, drinking out of a teacup, drinking out of a beer-
+bottle, using a toothpick, striking a match, lighting a cigarette,
+smoking and spitting like a man.
+
+2. To ride a tricycle, or bicycle.
+
+3. To put on a pair of trousers, adjust the suspenders, put on a
+sweater or coat, and a cap, reversing the whole operation after
+the performance.
+
+4. To drive nails with a hammer.
+
+5. Use a key to lock and unlock a padlock. The animal most
+proficient in this became able to select the right Yale key out of
+a bunch of half a dozen or more, with as much quickness and
+precision as the average man displays.
+
+The orang Dohong learned to pedal and to guide a tricycle in about
+three lessons. He caught the two ideas almost instantly, and soon
+brought his muscles under control sufficiently to ride
+successfully, even under difficult conditions.
+
+It was quickly recognized that our Rajah was a particularly good
+subject, and with him the keepers went farther than with the four
+others. From the first moment, the training operations were to him
+both interesting and agreeable. The animal enjoyed the work, and
+he entered into it so heartily that in two weeks he was ready to
+dine in public, somewhat after the manner of human beings.
+
+A platform eight feet in height was erected in front of the
+Reptile House, and upon it were placed a table, a high chair such
+as small children use, and various dishes. To the platform a step-
+ladder led upward from the ground. Every day at four o'clock lusty
+Rajah was carried to the exhibition space, and set free upon the
+ground. Forthwith the keepers proceeded to dress him in trousers,
+vest, coat and cap. The moment the last button had been fastened
+and the cap placed upon his head, he would promptly walk to the
+ladder, climb up to the platform, and in the most business-like
+way imaginable, seat himself in his chair at the table, all ready
+to dine.
+
+He used a napkin, ate his soup with a spoon, speared and conveyed
+his sliced bananas with his fork, poured milk from a teapot into
+his teacup, and drank from his cup with great enjoyment and
+decorum. When he took a drink (of tea) from a suspicious-looking
+black bottle, the audience always laughed. When he elevated the
+empty bottle to one eye and looked far into it, they roared; and
+when he finally took a toothpick and gravely placed it in his
+mouth, his auditors were delighted. Several times during the
+progress of each meal, Rajah would pause and benignly gaze down
+upon the crowd, like a self-satisfied judge on his bench.
+
+Not once did Rajah spoil this exhibition, which was continued
+throughout an entire summer, nor commit any overt act of
+impatience, indifference or meanness. The flighty, nervous temper
+of the chimpanzee was delightfully absent. The most remarkable
+feature of it all was his very evident enjoyment of his part of
+the performance, and his sense of responsibility to us and to his
+audiences.
+
+Rajah easily and quickly learned to ride a tricycle, and guide it
+himself. But for his untimely death, through a remarkable invasion
+of a microscopic parasite (_Balentidium coli_) imported from
+the Galapagos Islands by elephant tortoises, his mind would have
+been developed much farther. Since his death, in 1902, we have had
+other orang-utans that were successfully taught to dine, but none
+of them entered into the business with the same hearty zest which
+characterized Rajah, and made his performances so interesting.
+
+We now come to a consideration of simian mental traits of very
+different character. Another male orang, named Dohong, of the
+same age and intellectual caste as Rajah, developed a faculty for
+mechanics and invention which not only challenged our admiration,
+but also created much work for our carpenters. He discovered, or
+invented,  as you please, the lever as a mechanical force,--as fairly
+and squarely as Archimedes discovered the principle of the screw.
+Moreover, he delighted in the use of the new power thus acquired,
+quite as much as the successful inventor usually does. At the same
+time, two very bright chimpanzees of his own age, and with the
+same opportunities, discovered nothing.
+
+[Illustration caption: THUMB-PRINT OF AN ORANG-UTAN
+A group of fourteen experts in the New York City Departement of
+Criminal Records were unable to recognise this thumb print as
+anything else than that of a man]
+
+[Illustration caption: "RAJAH," THE ACTOR ORANG-UTAN
+In three lessons he learned to ride a tricycle]
+
+Dohong was of a reflective turn of mind, and never was entirely
+willing to learn the things that his keepers sought to teach him.
+To him, dining at a table was tiresomely dull, and the donning of
+fashionable clothing was a frivolous pastime, On the other hand,
+the interior of his cage, and his gymnastic appliances of ropes,
+trapeze and horizontal bars, all interested him greatly. Every
+square inch of surface, and every piece of material in his
+apartment, was carefully investigated, many times over.
+
+When three years old he discovered his own strength, and at first
+he used it good-naturedly to hector his cage-mate, a female
+chimpanzee smaller than himself. That, however, was of trifling
+interest. The day on which he made the discovery that he could
+break the wooden one and one-half inch horizontal bars that were
+held out from his cage walls on cast iron brackets, was for him a
+great day. Before his discovery was noted by the keepers he had
+joyfully destroyed two bars, and with a broken piece used as a
+lever was attacking a third. These bars were promptly replaced by
+larger bars, of harder wood, but screwed to the same cast-iron
+brackets that had carried the first series.
+
+For a time, the heavier bars endured; but in an evil moment the
+ape swung his trapeze bar, of two-inch oak, far over to one side
+of his cage, and applied the bar as a lever, inside of a
+horizontal bar and from above. The new force was too much for the
+cast-iron brackets, and one by one they gave way. Some were broken
+off, and others were torn from the wall by the breaking of the
+screws that held them. Knowing that all those brackets
+must be changed immediately, Dohong was left to destroy them;
+which he did, promptly and joyfully. We then made heavy
+brackets of flat wrought iron bars, 1/2 by 21/2 inches, unbreakable
+even with a lever. These were screwed on with screws
+so large and heavy that our carpenters knew they were quite
+secure.
+
+[Illustration caption: THE LEVER THAT OUR ORANG-UTAN INVENTED, AND
+THE WAY HE APPLIED IT By W. A. Camadeo, in the "Scientific
+American," 1907]
+
+In due time, Dohong tested his lever upon the bars with their new
+brackets, and at first they held securely. Then he engaged Polly,
+his chimpanzee companion, to assist him to the limit of her
+strength. While Dohong pulled on the lever, Polly braced her
+absurd little back against the wall, and pushed upon it, with all
+her strength. At first nothing gave way. The combined strength
+exerted by the three brackets was not to be overcome by prying at
+the horizontal bar itself. It was then that Dohong's inventive
+genius rose to its climax. He decided to attack the brackets
+singly, and conquer them one by one. On examining the situation
+very critically, he found that each bracket consisted of a right-
+angled triangle of wrought iron, with its perpendicular side
+against the wall, its base uppermost, and its hypotenuse out in
+the air. Through the open centre of the triangle he introduced the
+end of his trapeze bar, chain and all, as far as it would go, then
+gave a mighty heave. The end of his lever was against the wall,
+and the power was applied in such a manner that few machine screws
+could stand so great a strain. One by one, the screws were torn
+out of the wood, and finally each bracket worked upon was torn
+off.
+
+But there was one exception. The screws of one bracket were so
+firmly set in a particularly hard strip of the upright tongued-
+and-grooved yellow pine flooring that formed the wall, the board
+itself was finally torn out, full length! The board was four
+inches wide, seven-eighths of an inch thick, and seven feet long.
+Originally it was so firmly nailed that no one believed that it
+could be torn from its place. [Footnote: In the Winter of 1921
+about a dozen newspapers in the United States published a
+sensational syndicated article, occupying an entire page, in which
+all of Dohong's lever discovery and cage-wrecking performances
+were reported as of recent occurrence, and credited to a stupid
+and uninteresting young orang called Gabong, now in the Zoological
+Park, that has not even the merit of sufficient intelligence to
+maintain a proper state of bodily uprightness, let alone the
+invention of mechanical principles.]
+
+Without delay, Dohong started in with his lever to pry off the
+remaining boards of the wall, but this movement was promptly
+checked. Our next task consisted in making long bolts by which the
+brackets of the horizontal bars were bolted entirely through the
+partition walls and held so powerfully on the other side that even
+the lever could not wreck them.
+
+As soon as the brackets were made secure, Dohong turned his
+attention to the two large sleeping boxes which were built very
+solidly on the balcony of his cage. Both of those structures he
+tore completely to pieces,--always working with the utmost good
+nature and cheerfulness. Realizing that they could not exist in
+the cage with him, we gave him a permit to tear them out--and save
+the time of the carpenters.
+
+Dohong's use of his lever was seen by hundreds of visitors, and
+one frequent visitor to the Park, Mr. L. A. Camacho, an engineer,
+was so much impressed that he published in the _Scientific
+American_ an illustrated account of what he saw.
+
+For a long period, Dohong had been more or less annoyed by the
+fact that he could not get his head out between the front bars of
+his cage, and look around the partition into the home of his next-
+door neighbor. Very soon after he discovered the use of the lever,
+he swung his trapeze bar out to the upper corner of his cage,
+thrust the end of it out between the first bar and the steel
+column of the partition, and very deftly bent two of the iron bars
+outward far enough so that he could easily thrust his head outside
+and have his coveted look.
+
+One of our later and largest orangs made a specialty of twisting
+the straw of his bedding into a rope six or seven feet long, then
+throwing it over his trapeze bar and swinging by it, forward and
+back.
+
+Time and space will not permit the enumeration of the various
+things done by that ape of mechanical mind with his swinging rope
+and his trapeze, with ropes of straw _twisted by himself,_
+with keys, locks, hammer, nails and boxes. Any man who can witness
+such manifestations as those described above, and deny the
+existence in the animal of an ability to reason from cause to
+effect, must be prepared to deny the evidence of his own senses.
+
+The individual variations between orangs, as also between
+chimpanzees, are great and striking. It may with truth be said
+that no two individuals of either species are really quite alike
+in physiognomy, temperament and mental capacity. As subjects for
+the experimental psychologist, it is difficult to see how any
+other could be found that would be even a good second in living
+interest to the great apes. The facts thus far recorded, so I
+believe, present only a suggestion of the rich results that await
+the patient scientific investigator. In the year 1915 Dr. Robert
+M. Yerkes, of Harvard University, conducted at Montecito,
+southern California, in a comfortable primate laboratory, six
+months of continuous and diligent experiments on the behavior of
+orang-utans and monkeys. His report, published under the title of
+"The Mental Life of Monkeys and Apes: A Study of Ideational
+Behavior," is a document of much interest and value. Dr. Yerkes'
+use of the orang-utan as a subject was a decided step forward in
+the study of "animal behavior" in America.
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+THE MAN-LIKENESS OF THE CHIMPANZEE
+
+
+During the past twenty years, millions of thinking people have
+been startled, and not a few shocked, by the amazing and uncanny
+human-likeness of the performances of trained chimpanzees on the
+theatrical stage. Really, when a well trained "chimp" is dressed
+from head to foot like a man, and is seen going with quickness,
+precision and spirit through a performance half an hour in length,
+we go away from it with an uncomfortable feeling that speech is
+all that he lacks of being a citizen.
+
+In 1904 the American public saw Esau. Next came Consul,--in about
+three or four separate editions! In 1909 we had Peter. Then came I
+know not how many more, including the giant Casey and Mr. Garner's
+Susie; and finally in 1918 our own Suzette. The theatre-going
+public has been well supplied with trained chimpanzees, and the
+mental capacity of that species is now more widely known and
+appreciated than that of any other wild animal except the Indian
+elephant.
+
+There are several reasons why chimpanzees predominate on the
+stage, and why so few performing orang-utans have been seen. They
+are as follows:
+
+1. The orang is sanguine, and slower in execution than the nervous
+chimpanzee.
+
+2. The feet of the orang are not good for shoes, and biped work.
+
+3. The orang is rather awkward with its hands, and finally,
+
+4. There are fully twice as many chimps in the market.
+
+But the chimpanzee has certain drawbacks of his own. His nervous
+temper and his forced-draught activities soon wear him out. If he
+survives to see his sixth or seventh year, it is then that he
+becomes so strong and so full of ego that he becomes dangerous and
+requires to be retired.
+
+Bright minds are more common among the chimpanzee species than
+among the orangs. Three chimps out of every five are good for
+training, but not more than two orangs out of five can be
+satisfactorily developed.
+
+Some sensitive minds shrink from the idea that man has "descended"
+from the apes. I never for a moment shared that feeling. I would
+rather descend from a clean, capable and bright-minded genus of
+apes than from any unclean, ignorant and repulsive race of the
+genus _Homo._ In comparing the chimpanzees of Fernan Vaz
+with the Canoe Indians of the Strait of Magellan and other human
+tribes we could name, I think the former have decidedly the best
+of it. There are millions of members of the human race who are
+more loathsome and repulsive than wild apes.
+
+The face of the chimpanzee is highly mobile, and the mouth, lips,
+eyes and voice express the various emotions of the individual
+with a degree of clearness and precision second only to the facial
+expression of man himself. In fact, the face of an intelligent
+chimpanzee or orang-utan is a fairly constant index of the state
+of mind of the individual. In their turn, those enormously
+expansive lips and keen brown eyes express contentment, doubt,
+fear and terror; affection, disapproval, jealousy, anger, rage;
+hunger and satiety; lonesomeness and illness.
+
+The lips of the chimpanzee afford that animal several perfectly
+distinct expressions of the individual's mind and feelings. While
+it is not possible to offer a description of each which will
+certainly be recognizable to the reader, the two extremes will at
+least be appreciated. When coaxing for food, or attention, the
+lips are thrust far out beyond the teeth, and formed into a funnel
+with the small end outermost. When the chimpanzee flies into a
+rage at some real or fancied offense, the snarling lips are drawn
+back, and far up and down, until the teeth and gums are fully
+exposed in a ghastly threat of attack. At the same time, the voice
+gives forth shrill shrieks of rage, correctly represented by the
+syllable "Ee-ee-ee!", prolonged, and repeated with great force,
+three or four times. On such occasions as the latter, the
+offending party must look out for himself, or he may be roughly
+handled.
+
+The voice of the chimpanzee is strong, clear, and in captivity it
+is very much in evidence. Two of its moderate tones are almost
+musical. It is heard when the animal says, coaxingly, "Who'-oe!
+Who'-oe!" A dozen times a day, our large specimens indulge in
+spells of loud yelling, purely for their own amusement. Their
+strident cry sounds like "Hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo! _Wah'_-hoo!
+_Wah'_-hoo! Hoo'-hoo! _Wah_-h-h-h! _Wah_-h-h!" The
+second combination, "Wah-hoo," consists of two sounds, four notes
+apart.
+
+It is with their voices that chimpanzees first manifest their
+pleasure at seeing cherished friends of the human species, or
+their anger. Their recognition, and their exuberant joy on such
+occasions, is quite as apparent to every observer as are the
+manifestations of welcome of demonstrative human beings.
+
+Like all other groups of species, the apes of various genera now
+living vary widely in their mentalities. The chimpanzee has the
+most alert and human-like mind but with less speed the orang-utan
+is a good second. The average captive gorilla, if judged by
+existing standards for ape mentality, is a poor third in the
+anthropoid scale, below the chimp and orang; but since the rise of
+Major Penny's family-pet gorilla, named John, we must revise all
+our former views of that species, and concede exceptions.
+
+In studying the mental status of the primates I attach great
+importance to the work and results of the professional trainers
+who educate animals for stage performances. If the trainer does
+not know which are the brightest species of apes, baboons and
+monkeys, then who does? Their own fortunes depend upon their
+estimate of comparative mentality in the primates.  Fortunately for
+our purposes, the minds of the most intelligent and capable apes,
+baboons, and monkeys have been partially developed and exploited
+by stage trainers, and to a far less extent by keepers in zoological
+parks. Some wonderful results have been achieved, and the best of
+these have been seen by the public in theatres, in traveling shows
+and in zoological parks. All these performances have greatly
+interested me, because they go so far as measures of mental
+capacity. I wish to make it clear that I take them very seriously.
+
+[Illustration
+with caption: PORTRAIT OF A HIGH-CASTE CHIMPANZEE "Baldy" was an
+animal of fine intelligence and originality in thought. He was a
+natural comedian]
+
+While many of the acts of trained animals are due to their power
+of mimicry and are produced by imitation rather than by original
+thought, even their imitative work reveals a breadth of
+intelligence, a range of memory and of activity and precision in
+thought and in energy which no logical mind can ignore. To say
+that a chimpanzee who can swing through thirty or forty different
+acts "does not think" and "does not reason," is to deny the
+evidence of the human senses, and fall outside the bounds of human
+reason.
+
+Training Apes for Performances. As will appear in its own chapter,
+there is nothing at all mysterious in the training of apes. The
+subject must be young, and pliant in mind, and of cheerful and
+kind disposition. The poor subjects are left for cage life. The
+trainer must possess intelligence of good quality, infinite
+patience and tireless industry. Furthermore, the stage properties
+must be ample. An outfit of this kind can train any ape that is
+mentally and physically a good subject. Of course in every animal
+species, wild or domestic, there are individuals so dull and
+stupid that it is inexpedient to try to educate them.
+
+The chimpanzee Suzette who came to us direct from the vaudeville
+stage performed every summer in her open-air "arena cage," until
+she entered motherhood, which put an end to her stage work. She
+was a brilliant "trick" bicycle rider. She could stand upright on
+a huge wooden ball, and by expert balancing and foot-work roll it
+up a steep incline, down a flight of stairs, and land it safely
+upon the stage, without once losing her balance or her control.
+She was entirely at home on roller skates, and when taken out upon
+the pavement of Baird Court she would go wildly careering around
+the large grass plat at high speed.
+
+All the above acts were acrobatic feats that called for original
+thought and action, and were such as no dull mind and body could
+exert. All the training skill in the world could not take a
+machine and teach it to ride a bicycle through a collection of
+bottles, and an intelligent ape is a million years from being a
+"machine in fur and feathers."
+
+More than once I have been astounded by the performances of apes
+on the stage. Mr. J. S. Edwards' orang-utan Joe was a very capable
+animal, and his performances were wonderful. He could use a
+hammer in driving nails, and a screwdriver in inserting and
+extracting screws, with wonderful dexterity.
+
+The most remarkable chimpanzee performance that I ever saw was
+given in a New York theatre in 1909. The star actor was a fine
+male animal about six years old, called Peter. I made a complete
+record of his various acts, and the program was as follows
+
+PERFORMANCE OF PETER, A CHIMPANZEE
+
+Stage properties: a suit of clothes, shoes, chair, table, bed,
+bureau, hatrack, candle, cigarette, match, cuspidor, roller
+skates, bottles, flag, inclined plane and steps; plate, napkin,
+cup, spoon, teapot.
+
+As Peter entered, he bowed to the audience, took off his cap and
+hung it upon a hatrack. He went to the table, seated himself in
+the chair, unfolded and put on a napkin, and with a string
+fastened it in place under his chin. With a fork he speared some
+slices of banana and ate them. Into his tumbler he poured liquid
+from a bottle, drank, then corked the bottle. Next, he poured
+tea into a cup, put in sugar and cream, took tea from the spoon,
+then drank from the cup. After that he took a toothpick and used
+it elaborately.
+
+Striking a match he lit a cigarette, and smoked. In perfect man-
+fashion he took the cigarette between his fingers, gave his keeper
+a light, smoked again, and blew puffs of smoke first from one
+corner of his mouth and then the other. Then he elaborately spat
+into the cuspidor.
+
+Next in order he went to the bureau, cleaned his teeth with a
+tooth-brush, brushed his hair on both sides, looked into the
+mirror and powdered his face.
+
+Finally he bit a coin and put it on the keeper's plate as a tip.
+
+He pulled off his coat, took off his cuffs and vest, and thus half
+undressed he joyously danced about, beating a tambourine. Then he
+removed his shirt, trousers, shoes, garters and socks. Lighting
+his candle he walked to his bed, blew out the candle and went to
+bed.
+
+Very soon he rose, put on his trousers and a pair of roller skates
+and playfully pursued a young woman who ran before him. His use of
+the roller skates was excellent.
+
+The stage was cleared of furniture, and a bicycle was brought out.
+He mounted it and started off, at the first trial, and swiftly
+rode around the stage about fifteen times. While riding he took
+off his cap and waved it. He rode up an inclined plane and down
+four steps without falling off, repeating for an encore,--but
+here he became peeved about something.
+
+Five bottles were set in a figure 8, and he rode between them
+several times. At last he took up a bottle and drank out of it.
+Then he drank out of a tumbler, all while riding. After much flag-
+waving and swift riding, Peter stopped at the center of the stage,
+dismounted, bowed, clapped his hands vigorously and retired.
+
+Peter's performance was remarkable because of the great length of
+it, the absolute skill and precision of it, and the animal's easy
+mastery of every situation. There was a notable absence of
+hesitations and mistakes, and of visible direction. The trainer
+seemed to do nothing save to assist with the stage properties,
+just as an assistant helps any acrobat through the property
+business of his act. If any commands or signs were given, the
+audience was not aware of it. Later on I learned that sometimes
+Peter did not perform with such spirit, and required some urging
+to be prompt. The trainer was kept hustling to keep up with his
+own duties. The animal seemed to remember, and I believe he did
+remember, the sequence of a performance of _fifty-six separate
+acts!_
+
+When I witnessed Peter's performance in New York, saw the length
+of it and noted the immense amount of nervous energy that each
+performance used up, I made the prediction that he could not for
+one year endure such a strain. It was reported to me that he died
+nine months from that time.
+
+In October, 1909, when Peter went to Philadelphia, he was
+frequently and closely studied and observed by Dr. Lightner
+Witmer, professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania,
+and his mentality was tested at the laboratory of the University.
+Dr. Witmer's conclusions, as set forth in a paper in the December
+(1909) issue of the _Psychological Clinic,_ are of very great
+interest. He approached Peter's first performance in a skeptical
+frame of mind. I gladly waive the opportunity to express my own
+views regarding Peter in order to put upon the stand a more
+competent witness. Hear Dr. Witmer:
+
+"As I entered the theatre," he says, "my feelings were commingled
+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
+him in order to fool him, but Peter was not fooled. He felt both
+ends of the hammer and used the flat end instead of the round end.
+
+Showing his initiative during the tests, Peter got away from those
+who were watching him and darted for a washstand, quickly turned
+the faucet and put his mouth to the spigot and secured a drink
+before he was snatched away by his trainers. He understood
+language and followed instructions without signs. He was able to
+say "mamma," and Doctor Witmer taught him in five minutes to give
+the sound of "p." The most remarkable performance was making the
+letter "w" on the blackboard, in which he imitated Doctor Witmer's
+movements exactly, and reproduced a fair copy of the letter.
+
+The last four paragraphs reproduced above have been copied from an
+article which appeared in the Philadelphia _Public Ledger_ on
+December 17, 1909.
+
+Dr. Witmer declares that the study of this ape's mind is a subject
+fit, not for the animal psychologist, but for the child
+psychologist.
+
+Suzette's Failure in Maternal Instinct. As a closing contribution
+to our observations on the chimpanzee, I must record a tragic
+failure in maternal instinct, as well as in general intelligence,
+in a chimpanzee.
+
+In 1919 our two fine eight-year old chimpanzees, Boma and Suzette,
+were happily married. It was a genuine love match, and strictly
+monogamous at that; for while big Fanny Chimp in the cage next
+door to Boma loved Boma and openly courted him, he was
+outrageously indifferent to her, and even scorned her. After
+seven months of gestation, a very good baby was born to Suzette,
+quite naturally and successfully. Boma's shouts of excitement and
+delight carried half a mile throughout the Park. Everything looked
+most auspicious for the rearing of a wonderful cage-bred and
+cage-born chimpanzee, the second one ever born in captivity.
+Instead of carrying her infant astride her hip, as do orang
+mothers, and the coolie women of India, Suzette astonished us
+beyond measure by tucking it _into her groin,_ between her
+thigh and her abdomen, head outward. It was a fine place,--warm
+and soft,--but not good when overdone! When Suzette walked, as she
+freely did, she held up the leg responsible for the baby, to hold
+it securely in place, and walked upon the other foot and her two
+hands. About all this there was one very bad thing. The baby was
+perfectly helpless! As long as the mother chose to keep it in her
+groin prison, it could not get free.
+
+Suzette was completely isolated, kept absolutely quiet, and every
+chance was given her to go on with the functions of motherhood.
+Her breasts contained plenty of milk, and the flow was due to
+start on the second day after the infant's arrival.
+
+Day and night the baby was jealously confined in that massive and
+powerful groin,--and _under too much pressure!_ When the baby
+cried, and kicked, and struggled to get free, Suzette would
+nervously rearrange her straw bed, carefully pick from the tiny
+fingers every straw that they had clutched, and settle down again.
+If the struggle was soon renewed, Suzette would change the infant
+over to the other groin, and close upon it as before.
+
+Sleeping or waking, walking, sitting or lying down, she held it
+there. If we attempted to touch the infant, the mother instantly
+became savage and dangerous. Not one human finger was permitted to
+touch it. For hours, and for days, we anxiously watched for
+nursing to begin; but in vain. At last we became almost frantic
+from the spectacle of the infant being slowly starved to death
+because the mother did not realize that it needed her milk, and
+that she alone could promote nursing. _Her mother instinct
+utterly failed to supply the link that alone could connect infancy
+to motherhood, and furnish life._
+
+Of course this failure was due to poor Suzette's artificial life,
+and unnatural surroundings. Had she been all alone, in the depths
+of a tropical forest, Nature would have proceeded along her usual
+lines. But in our Primate House, Suzette felt that her infant was
+surrounded by a host of strange enemies, from whom it must be
+strongly and persistently _guarded and defended._ That was
+the idea that completely dominated her mind, ruled out all human
+help, and blocked the main process of nature.
+
+During the eight days that the infant lived, it was able to reach
+her breast and nurse only once, for about one minute; and then
+back it went to its prison, where it died from sheer lack of
+nourishment.
+
+In 1920, that same history was repeated, except that on this
+occasion our Veterinary Surgeon, Dr. W. Reid Blair, worked (on the
+fifth day) for seven hours without intermission to stupefy Suzette
+with chloroform, or other opiates, sufficiently to make it
+possible to remove the baby without a fight with the mother and
+its certain death. Owing to her savage temper all the work had to
+be done between iron bars, to keep from losing hands or arms, and
+the handicap on the human hand was too great. Even when Suzette
+had received chloroform for an hour and twenty minutes, and was
+regarded as _half dead,_ at the first touch of a human finger
+upon her thigh she instantly aroused and sprang up, raging and
+ready for battle.
+
+The whole effort failed. To rope Suzette and attempt to control
+her by force would have been sheer folly, or worse. In such a
+struggle the infant would have been torn to pieces.
+
+The second one died as the first one did, and for an awful week we
+were unable to gain possession of the decomposing cadaver. Suzette
+knew that something was wrong, and she realized the awful odor,
+but that idea of defense of her offspring obscured all others. In
+maintaining her possession of that infant, nothing could surpass
+the cunning of that ape mother. Will we ever succeed in outwitting
+her, and in getting one of her babies alive into a baby incubator?
+Who can say?
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+THE TRUE MENTAL STATUS OF THE GORILLA
+
+
+The true mental status of the gorilla was discovered in 1919 and
+1920, at 15 Sloane Street, London, by Major Rupert Penny, of the
+Royal Air Service, and his young relative, Miss Alyse Cunningham.
+Prior to that time, through various combinations of retarding
+circumstances, no living gorilla had ever been placed and kept in
+an environment calculated to develop and display the real mental
+calibre of the gorilla mind. It seems that an exhibition cage, in
+a zoological park or garden thronged with visitors, actually tends
+to the suppression, or even the complete extinguishment, of true
+gorilla character. The atmosphere of the footlights and the stage
+in which the chimpanzee delights and thrives is to the gorilla
+repulsive and unbearable.
+
+Judging by Major Penny's "John," the gorilla wishes to live in a
+high-class human family, in a modern house, and be treated like a
+human being! It is now definitely recognized by us, and also by
+our colleagues in the London Zoological Gardens, that gorillas can
+not live long and thrive on public exhibition, before great crowds
+of people, and that it is folly to insist upon trying to compel
+them to do so. The male individual that lived several years in the
+Breslau Zoological Garden and attained the age of seven years was
+a striking exception.
+
+We have had two gorillas at our Park, one of which, a female named
+Dinah, arrived in good health, and lived with us eleven and one-
+half months. Her mind was dull and hopelessly unresponsive. She
+learned next to nothing, and she did nothing really interesting.
+Other captive gorillas I have known have been equally morose and
+unresponsive, and lived fewer months than Dinah.
+
+It is because of such animals as Dinah that for fifty years the
+mental status of the gorilla species has been under a cloud. Until
+now it has been much misunderstood and unappreciated. Of the few
+gorillas that have been seen in England and America, I think that
+all save John have been so morose and unresponsive, _and so
+undeveloped by companionship and training_, that mentally they
+have been rated far below the chimpanzee and orang.
+
+Our own Dinah was no exception to the rule. Personally she was a
+stupid little thing, even when in excellent health. Her most
+pronounced and exasperating stupidities were shown in her refusal
+to eat, or to taste, strange food, even when very hungry. Any ape
+that does not know enough to eat a fine, ripe banana, and will
+only mince away at the _inner lining_ of the banana skin, is
+an unmitigated numskull, and hardly fit to live. Dinah was all
+that, and more. But, alas! We have seen a few stupid human
+children who obstinately refused even to taste certain new and
+unknown kinds of food, because they "know" they will not like
+them! So Dinah was not alone in her childish folly.
+
+At last a chain of circumstances placed an intellectual and
+sensible gorilla, two years of age, in the hands of a family
+specially fitted by education and home surroundings to develop its
+mind and its manners. The results of those efforts have given to
+the gorilla an entirely new mental status. Thanks to the
+enterprise and diligence of Major Rupert Penny and Miss Cunningham
+in purchasing and caring for a sick and miserable young male
+gorilla,--a most hazardous risk,--a new chapter in wild-animal
+psychology now is to be written.
+
+In December, 1918, "John Gorilla" was purchased in a London
+department store, out of a daily atmosphere heated to _85
+degrees_, and a nightly condition of solitude and terror. From
+that awful state it was taken to live in Major Penny's comfortable
+apartments. John was seriously ill. He was in a "rickety"
+condition, and he weighed only 32 pounds. With a pure atmosphere,
+kept at 65 degrees only, and amid good surroundings, he soon
+became well. He attained such robust health and buoyant spirits
+that in March, 1921, he stood 40 1/2 inches high and weighed 112
+pounds.
+
+At my solicitation Miss Cunningham wrote out for me the very
+remarkable personal history of that wonderful animal,--apparently
+the most wonderful gorilla ever observed in captivity. It is a
+clear, straightforward and convincing record, and not one of its
+statements is to be for one moment doubted. While it is too long
+to reproduce here in its entirety, I will present a condensation
+of it, in Miss Cunningham's own words that will record the salient
+facts,--with no changes save in arrangement.
+
+Miss Cunningham says:
+
+LONELINESS. "We soon found it was impossible to leave him alone at
+night, because he shrieked every night, and nearly all night, from
+loneliness and fear. This we found he had done in the store where
+he lived before coming to us. He always began to cry directly he
+saw the assistants putting things away for the night. We found
+that this loneliness at night was trying on his health and
+appetite. As soon as possible my nephew had his bed made up every
+night in the room adjoining the cage, with the result that John
+was quite happy, and began to grow and put on fat.
+
+TREATMENT. "I fed him, washed his hands, face and feet twice a
+day, and brushed and combed his hair,--which he would try to do
+himself whenever he got hold of the brush or comb. He soon got to
+like all this.
+
+TRAINING. "My next idea was to teach him to be strictly clean in
+his habits. It was my ambition to be able to have him upstairs in
+our house as an ordinary member of the household. I taught him
+first as a child is taught and handled. This took some time. At
+first I could not make him understand what we expected of him,
+even though I always petted him and gave him grapes (of which he
+was especially fond), but I think at first he imagined that this
+treatment was a punishment. At first, without other reasons, he
+would roll on the floor and shriek, but directly he understood
+what was expected of him he soon learned, and began to behave
+excellently.
+
+"This training occupied quite six weeks. About February, 1919, we
+took him out of his cage, and allowed him the freedom of the
+house. Thereafter he would run upstairs to the bathroom of his own
+accord, turning the doorknob of whatever room he was in, and also
+opening the door of the bathroom.... He would get out of bed in
+the night by himself, go back to bed, and pull the blankets over
+himself quite neatly.
+
+FOOD. "John's appetite seemed to tire of foods very quickly. The
+only thing he stuck to was milk, which he liked best when warmed.
+We began by giving him a quart a day, rising to three and one-half
+quarts a day. I found that he preferred to choose his own food, so
+I used to prepare for him several kinds, such as bananas, oranges,
+apples, grapes, raisins, currants, dates and any small fruits in
+season, such as raspberries or strawberries, _all of which he
+liked to have warmed!_
+
+"These displays I placed on a high shelf in the kitchen, where he
+could get them with difficulty. I think that he thought himself
+very clever when he stole anything. He never would eat anything
+stale. He was extremely fond of fresh lemon jelly, but he never
+would touch it after the second day. He loved roses, _to
+eat_, more than anything. The more beautiful they were, the
+more he liked them, but he never would eat faded roses. He never
+cared much for nuts of any other kind than baked peanuts, save
+walnuts. I found that nuts gave him dreadful spells of
+indigestion.
+
+USE OF TOOLS. "He knew what hammers and chisels were for, but for
+obvious reasons we never encouraged him in anything to do with
+carpentry. With cocoanuts he was very funny. He knew that they had
+to be broken, and he would try to break them on the floor. When he
+found he couldn't manage that, he would bring the nut to one of us
+and try to make us understand what he wished. If we gave him a
+hammer he would try to use it on the nut, and on not being able to
+manage that, he would give back to us both the hammer and the
+cocoanut.
+
+GAMES AND PLAY. "We never taught him any tricks; he simply
+acquired knowledge himself. A game he was very fond of was to
+pretend he was blind, shutting his eyes very tightly, and running
+around the room knocking against tables and chairs. . . . We found
+that exercise was the thing he required to keep him in health, and
+my nephew used to give him plenty of that by playing hide and seek
+with him in the morning before breakfast, and in the evening
+before dinner,--up and down stairs, in and out of all the rooms.
+He simply loved that game, and would giggle and laugh while being
+chased.... If he saw that a stranger was at all nervous about him,
+he loved running past him, and giving him a smack on the leg,--and
+you could see him grin as he did so.
+
+"A thing he greatly enjoyed was to stand on the top rail of his
+bed and jump on the springs, head over heels, just like a child.
+
+CAUTION. "He was very cautious. He would never run into a dark
+room without first turning on the light.
+
+FEAR. "John seemed to realize danger for other people in high
+places, for if anyone looked out of a high window he always pushed
+them away if he were at the window himself, but if he was away
+from it he would run and pull them back. . . . He was very much
+afraid of full-grown sheep, cows and horses, but he loved colts,
+calves and lambs, proving to us that he recognized youth.
+
+WOODS VS. FIELDS. "We found he did not like fields or open
+country, but he was very happy in a garden, or in woods. . . . He
+always liked nibbling twigs, and to eat the green buds of trees.
+
+TABLE MANNERS. "His table manners were really very good. He always
+sat at the table, and whenever a meal was ready, would pull his
+own chair up to his place. He did not care to eat a great deal,
+but he especially liked to drink water out of a tumbler. . . . He
+was the least greedy of all the animals I have ever seen. He never
+would snatch anything, and always ate very slowly. He always drank
+a lot of water, which he would always get himself whenever he
+wanted it by turning on a tap. Strange to say, he always turned
+off the water when he had finished drinking.
+
+PLAYING TO THE GALLERY. "John seemed to think that everyone was
+delighted to see him, and he would throw up the window whenever he
+was permitted. If he found the sash locked he would unfasten it,
+and when a big crowd had collected outside he would clap his chest
+and his hands. [Footnote: In the summer of 1920 a globe-trotter
+just arrived from England excitedly reported to me: "While driving
+along a street in London _I saw a live gorilla_ in the upper
+window of an apartment. It was a _real gorilla;_ and it
+clapped its hands at us as we looked! Now _what_ did it all
+mean?" Fortunately I was able to explain it.]
+
+PUNISHMENT AND REPENTANCE. "We made one very great mistake with
+John. His cage was used as a punishment, with the result that we
+never could leave him there alone, for he would shriek all the
+time. . . . Now, a stick was the one thing that our gorilla would
+not stand from anyone, save Major Penny and myself. Presently we
+found out that the only way to deal with him was to tell him that
+he was very naughty, and push him away from us; when he would roll
+on the floor and cry, and be very-repentant, holding one's ankles,
+and putting his head on our feet.
+
+AFFECTION FOR A CHILD. "He was especially fond of my little niece,
+three years old. John and she used to play together for hours, and
+he seemed to understand what she wanted him to do. If she ever
+cried, and her mother would not go and pick her up, John would
+always try and nip the mother, or give her a smack with the full
+weight of his hand, evidently thinking she was the cause of the
+child's tears.
+
+A SENSE OF GOOD ORDER. "He loved to take everything
+out of a wastepaper basket and strew the contents all over the
+room, after which, when told to do so he would pick up everything
+and put it all back, but looking very bored all the while. If the basket
+was very full he would push it all down very carefully, to make room
+for more. He would always put things back when told to do so, such
+as books from a bookshelf or things from a table.
+
+[Illustration caption: THE GORILLA WITH THE WONDERFUL MIND Owned
+by Major Rupert Penny, educated by Miss Alyse Cunningham, London,
+1918-1921]
+
+TWO CASES OF ORIGINAL THOUGHT. (1) "One day we were going out, for
+which I was sitting ready dressed, when John wished to sit in my
+lap. My sister, Mrs. Penny, said: 'Don't let him. He will spoil
+your dress.'
+
+"As my dress happened to be a light one I pushed him away, and
+said, 'No!' He at once lay on the floor and cried just like a
+child, for about a minute. Then he rose, looked round the room,
+found a newspaper, went and picked it up, spread it on my lap and
+climbed up. This was quite the cleverest thing I ever saw him do.
+_Even those who saw it said they would not have believed it had
+they not seen it themselves!_ Both my nephews, (Major Penny and
+Mr. E. C. Penny), his wife and my sister (Mrs. Penny) were in the
+room, and can testify to the correctness of the above record.
+
+(2) "Another clever thing John did, although I suspect this was
+due more to instinct that to downright cleverness. A piece of
+filet beefsteak had just come from the butcher. Inasmuch as
+occasionally I gave him a small mouthful of raw beef, a small
+piece of the coarser part of the steak was cut off, and I gave it
+to him. He tasted it, then gravely handed it back to me. Then he
+took my hand and put it on the finer part of the meat. From that I
+cut off a tiny piece, gave it to him, and he ate it. When my
+nephew came home he wouldn't believe it, so I tried it again, with
+the same result, except that then he did not even attempt to eat
+the coarser meat."
+
+* * * * *
+
+Concerning Miss Cunningham's wonderful story, I wish to state that
+I believe all of it,--because there is no reason to do otherwise!
+It sets a new mark in gorilla lore, and it lifts a curtain from an
+animal mind that previously was unknown, and very generally
+misunderstood.
+
+To the Doubting Thomases who will doubt some portions of Miss
+Cunningham's story, let me cite, by way of caution, the following
+history:
+
+When Du Chaillu discovered the gorilla, and came to America and
+England with his specimens to tell about it, he said that when a
+big gorilla is attacked and made angry it beats its breast,
+repeatedly, with its clenched fists. The wiseacres of that day
+solemnly shook their heads and said: "Oh, no! That can not be
+true. No ape ever did that. He is romancing!" But now we know that
+this breast-beating and chest-clapping habit is to a gorilla a
+common-place performance, even in captivity.
+
+Sometimes there are more things in heaven and earth than are
+dreamt of in all our philosophy.
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+THE MIND OF THE ELEPHANT
+
+
+It was in the jungles of the Animallai Hills of southern India
+that I first became impressed by the mental capacity of the Indian
+elephant. I saw many wild herds. I saw elephants at work, and at
+one period I lived in a timber camp, consisting of working
+elephants and mahouts. I saw a shrewd young elephant-driver
+soundly flogged for stealing an elephant, farming it out to a
+native timber contractor for four days, and then elaborately
+pretending that the animal had been "lost." Later on I saw
+elephant performances in the "Greatest Show on Earth" and
+elsewhere, and for eighteen years I have been chief mourner over
+the idiosyncrasies of Gunda and Alice. If I do not now know
+something about elephants, then my own case of animal intelligence
+is indeed hopeless.
+
+To me it seems that the only thing necessary to establish the
+elephant as an animal of remarkable intellect and power of
+original reasoning is to set forth the unadorned facts that lie
+ready to hand.
+
+Cuvier recorded the opinion that in sagacity the elephant in no
+way excels the dog and some other species of carnivora. Sir
+Emerson Tennent, even after some study of the elephant, was
+disposed to award the palm for intelligence to the dog, but only
+"from the higher degree of development consequent on his more
+intimate domestication and association with man." In the mind of
+G. P. Sanderson we fear that familiarity with the elephant bred a
+measure of contempt; and this seems very strange. He says:
+
+"Its reasoning faculties are undoubtedly far below those of the
+dog, and possibly of other animals; and in matters beyond its
+daily experience it evinces no special discernment."
+
+To me it seems that all three of those opinions are off the
+target. The dog is not a wild, untrammeled animal; and neither
+dogs, cats nor savage men evince any special discernment "beyond
+the range of their daily experience." Moreover, there are some
+millions of tame men of whom the same may be said with entire
+safety.
+
+Very often the question is asked: "Is the African elephant equal
+in intelligence and training capacity to the Indian species?"
+
+To this we must answer: Not proven. We do not know. The African
+species never has been tried out on the same long and wide basis
+as the Indian. Many individual African elephants, very
+intelligent, have been trained, successfully, and have given good
+accounts of themselves. For my own part I am absolutely sure that
+when taken in hand at the same age, and trained on the same basis
+as the Indian species, the African elephant will be found mentally
+quite the equal of the Indian, and just as available for work or
+performances.
+
+No negro tribe really likes to handle elephants and train them.
+The Indian native loves elephants, and enjoys training them and
+working with them. It is these two conditions that have left the
+African elephant far behind the procession. The African elephant
+belongs to the great Undeveloped Continent. He has been, and he
+still is, mercilessly pursued and slaughtered for his tusks. All
+the existing species of African elephants are going down and out
+before the ivory hunters. We fear that they will all be dead one
+hundred years from this time, or even less. A century hence, when
+the last _africanus_ has gone to join the mammoth and the
+mastodon, his well protected wild congener in India still will be
+devouring his four hundred pounds of green fodder per day, and the
+tame ones will be performing to amuse the swarming human millions
+of this overcrowded world.
+
+In the minds of our elephant keepers, familiarity with elephants
+has bred just the reverse of contempt. Both Thuman and Richards
+are quite sure that elephants are the wisest of all wild animals.
+
+Despite the very great amount of trouble made for Keeper Thuman by
+Gunda, the Indian, and Kartoum, the African, Thuman grows
+enthusiastic over the shrewdness of their "cussedness." He is
+particularly impressed by their skill in opening chain shackles,
+and unfastening the catches and locks of doors and gates. And
+really, Kartoum's ingenuity in finding out how to open latches and
+bolts is almost inexhaustible, as well as marvelous.
+
+Keeper Richards declares that our late African pygmy elephant,
+Congo, was the wisest animal he ever has known. I have elsewhere
+referred to his ability in shutting his outside door. Richards
+taught him to accept coins from visitors, deposit them in a box,
+then pull a cord to ring a bell, one pull for each coin
+represented. The keeper devised four different systems of intimate
+signals by which he could tell Congo to stop at the right point,
+and all these were so slight that no one ever detected them. One
+was by a voice-given cue, another by a hand motion, and a third
+was by an inclination of the body.
+
+Keeper Richards relates that Congo would go out in his yard,
+collect a trunkful of peanuts from visitors, bring them inside and
+secretly cache them in a corner behind his feed box. Then he would
+go out for more graft peanuts, bring them in, hide them and
+proceed to eat the first lot. There are millions of men who do not
+know what it is to conserve something that can be eaten.
+
+In this discussion of the intellectual powers and moral qualities
+of the elephant I will confine myself to my own observations on
+_Elephas indicus_, except where otherwise stated. A point to
+which we ask special attention is that in endeavoring to estimate
+the mental capacity of the elephant, we will base no general
+conclusions upon _any particularly intelligent individual_,
+as all mankind is tempted to do in discussions of the intelligence
+of the dog, the cat, the horse, parrot and ape. On the contrary,
+it is our desire to reveal the mental capacity of _every
+elephant living_, tame or wild, except the few individuals with
+abnormal or diseased minds. It is not to be shown how successfully
+_an_ elephant has been taught by man, but how _all_
+elephants in captivity have been taught, and the mental capacity
+of _every_ elephant.
+
+Under the head of intellectual qualities we have first to consider
+the elephant's
+
+POWERS OF INDEPENDENT OBSERVATIONS, AND REASONING FROM CAUSE TO
+EFFECT
+
+While many wonderful stories are related of the elephant's
+sagacity and independent powers of reasoning, it must be admitted
+that a greater number of more wonderful anecdotes are told on
+equally good authority of dogs. But the circumstances in the case
+are wholly to the advantage of the universal dog, and against the
+rarely seen elephant. While the former roams at will through his
+master's premises, through town and country, mingling freely with
+all kinds of men and domestic animals, with unlimited time to lay
+plans and execute them, the elephant in captivity is chained to a
+stake, with no liberty of action whatever aside from begging with
+his trunk, eating and drinking. His only amusement is in swaying
+his body, swinging one foot, switching his tail, and (in a
+zoological park) looking for something that he can open or
+destroy. Such a ponderous beast cannot be allowed to roam at large
+among human beings, and the working elephant never leaves his
+stake and chain except under the guidance of his mahout. There is
+no means of estimating the wonderful powers of reasoning that
+captive elephants might develop if they could only enjoy the
+freedom accorded to all dogs except the blood-hound, bull-dog and
+a few others.
+
+In the jungles of India the writer frequently has seen wild
+elephants reconnoitre dangerous ground by means of a scout or spy;
+communicate intelligence by signs; retreat in orderly silence from
+a lurking danger, and systematically march, in single file, like
+the jungle tribes of men.
+
+Once having approached to within fifty yards of the stragglers of
+a herd of about thirty wild elephants, which was scattered over
+about four acres of very open forest and quietly feeding, two
+individuals of the herd on the side nearest us suddenly suspected
+danger. One of them elevated his trunk, with the tip bent forward,
+and smelled the air from various points of the compass. A moment
+later an old elephant left the herd and started straight for our
+ambush, scenting the air with upraised trunk as he slowly and
+noiselessly advanced. We instantly retreated, unobserved and
+unheard. The elephant advanced until he reached the identical spot
+where we had a moment before been concealed. He paused, and stood
+motionless as a statue for about two minutes, then wheeled about
+and quickly but noiselessly rejoined the herd. In less than half
+a minute the whole herd was in motion, heading directly away from
+us, and moving very rapidly, but _without the slightest
+noise_. The huge animals simply vanished like shadows into the
+leafy depths of the forest. Before proceeding a quarter of a mile,
+the entire herd formed in single file and continued strictly in
+that order for several miles. Like the human dwellers in the
+jungle, the elephants know that the easiest and most expeditious
+way for a large body of animals to traverse a tangled forest is
+for the leader to pick the way, while all the others follow in his
+footsteps.
+
+In strong contrast with the stealthy and noiseless manner in which
+elephants steal away from a lurking danger, or an ambush
+discovered, from an open attack accompanied with the noise of
+fire-arms they rush away at headlong speed, quite regardless of
+the noise they make. On one occasion a herd which I was designing
+to attack, and had approached to within forty yards, as its
+members were feeding in some thick bushes, discovered my presence
+and retreated so silently that they had been gone five minutes
+before I discovered what their sudden quietude really meant. In
+this instance, as in several others, the still alarm was
+communicated by silent signals, or sign-language.
+
+At the Zoological Park we reared an African pygmy elephant
+(_Elephas pumilio_). When his slender little tusks grew to
+eighteen inches in length he made some interesting uses of them.
+Once when the keepers wished to lead him upon our large platform
+scales, the trembling of the platform frightened him. He conceived
+the idea that it was unsafe, and therefore that he must keep off.
+He backed away, halted, and refused to leave solid ground. The men
+pushed him. He backed, and trumpeted a shrill protest. The men
+pushed harder, and forced him forward. Trumpeting his wild alarm
+and his protest against what he regarded as murder, he fell upon
+his knees and drove his tusks into the earth, quite up to his
+mouth, to anchor himself firmly to the solid ground. It was
+pathetic, but also amusing. When Congo finally was pushed upon the
+scales and weighed, he left the trembling instrument of torture
+with an air of disgust and disapproval that was quite as eloquent
+as words. On several occasions when taken out for exercise in the
+park, he endeavored to hinder the return to quarters by anchoring
+himself to Mother Earth.
+
+Congo once startled us by his knowledge of the usefulness of
+doors. For a time he was kept in a compartment that had an outside
+door running sidewise on a trolley track, and controlled by two
+hanging chains, one to close it and one to open it. Each chain had
+on its end a stout iron ring for a handle. One chilly morning when
+I went to see Congo, I asked his keeper to open his door, so that
+he could go out.
+
+The keeper did so, by pulling the right hand chain. The moment the
+draft of chilly outer air struck Congo, who stood in the centre of
+his stall facing me, he impatiently wheeled about, walked up to
+the left hand chain, grabbed it with his trunk, slipped the ring
+over one of his tusks, then inclined his head downward and with an
+irritated tug pulled the door shut with a spiteful slam. "Open
+it again," I said to the keeper.
+
+He did so, and in the same way, but with a visible increase in
+irritation, Congo closed it in the same manner as before. Again
+the keeper opened the door, and this time, with a real exhibition
+of temper Congo again thrust the ring over his tusk, and brought
+the door shut with a resounding bang. It was his regular habit to
+close that door, or to open it, when he felt like more air or less
+air; and who is there who will say that the act was due to
+"instinct" in a jungle-bred animal, or anything else than original
+thought. The ring on his tusk was his own invention, as a means to
+a desired end.
+
+Every elephant that we ever have had has become, through his own
+initiative and experimenting, an expert in unfastening the latches
+of doors and gates, and in untying chains and ropes. Gunda always
+knew enough to attack the padlocks on his leg chains, and break
+them if possible. No ordinary clevis would hold him. When the pin
+was threaded at one end and screwed into its place, Gunda would
+work at it, hour by hour, until he would start it to unscrewing,
+and then his trunk-tip would do the rest. The only clevis that he
+could not open was one in which a stout cotter pin was passed
+through the end of the clevis-pin and strongly bent.
+
+Through reasons emanating in his own savage brain, Gunda took
+strong dislikes to several of our park people. He hated Dick
+Richards,--the keeper of Alice. He hated a certain messenger boy,
+a certain laborer, a painter and Mr. Ditmars. Toward me he was
+tolerant, and never rushed at me to kill me, as he always did to
+his pet aversions. He stood in open fear of his own keeper, Walter
+Thuman, until he had studied out a plan to catch him off his guard
+and "get him." Then he launched his long-contemplated attack, and
+Thuman was almost killed.
+
+Our present (1921) male African elephant, Kartoum, is not so
+hostile toward people, but his insatiable desire is to break and
+to smash all of his environment that can be bent or broken. His
+ingenuity in finding ways to damage doors and gates, and to bend
+or to break steel beams, is amazing. His greatest feat consisted
+in breaking squarely in two, by pushing with his head, a 90-pound
+steel railroad iron used as the top bar of his fence. He knows the
+mechanism of the latch of the ponderous steel door between his two
+box stalls, and nothing but a small pin that only human fingers
+can manipulate suffices to thwart his efforts to control the
+latch.
+
+Kartoum has gone over every inch of surface of his two apartments,
+his doors, gates and fences, to find something that he can break
+or damage. The steel linings of his apartment walls, originally
+five feet high, we have been compelled to extend upward to a
+height of nine feet, to save the brick walls from being battered
+and disfigured. He has searched his steel fences throughout, in
+order to find their weakest points, and concentrate his attacks
+upon them. If the sharp-pointed iron spikes three inches long that
+are set all over his doors are perfectly solid, he respects them,
+but if one is the least bit loose in its socket, he works at it
+until he finally breaks it off.
+
+I invite any Doubting Thomas who thinks that Kartoum does not
+"think" and "reason" to try his own thinking and reasoning at
+inventing for Kartoum's door a latch that a keeper can easily and
+surely open and close at a distance of ten feet, and that will be
+Kartoum-proof. As for ourselves, three or four seemingly
+intelligent officers and keepers, and a capable foreman of
+construction, have all they can do to keep ahead of that one
+elephant, so great is his ingenuity in thwarting our ways and
+means to restrain him.
+
+In about two days of effort our elephant keepers taught Gunda to
+receive a coin from the hand of a visitor, or pick it off the
+floor, lift the lid of a high-placed cash-box, drop the coin into
+it and ring a bell. This very amusing industry was kept up for
+several years, but finally it became so popular that it had to be
+discontinued.
+
+Keeper Dick Richards easily taught Alice to blow a mouth organ,
+and to ring a telephone, to take the receiver off its hook and
+hold it to her ear and listen. For years Alice has rendered, every
+summer, valuable services of a serious nature in carrying children
+and other visitors around her yard, and only once or twice has she
+shown a contrary or obstinate spirit.
+
+Tame elephants never tread on the feet of their attendants or
+knock them down by accident; or, at least, no instances of the
+kind have come to my knowledge. The elephant's feet are large, his
+range of vision is circumscribed, and his extreme and wholly
+voluntary solicitude for the safety of his human attendants can
+not be due to anything else than independent reasoning. The most
+intelligent dog is apt to greet his master by planting a pair of
+dirty paws against his coat or trousers. The most sensible
+carriage-horse is liable to step on his master's foot or crowd him
+against a wall in a moment of excitement; but even inside the
+keddah, with wild elephants all about, and a captive elephant
+hemmed in by three or four tame animals, the noosers safely work
+under the bodies and between the feet of the tame elephant until
+the feet of the captive are tied.
+
+All who have witnessed the tying of captives in a keddah wherein a
+whole wild herd has been entrapped, testify to the uncanny human-
+like quality of the intelligence displayed by the tame elephants
+who assist in tying, leading out and subjugating the wild
+captives. They enter into the business with both spirit and
+understanding, and as occasion requires will deceitfully cajole or
+vigorously punish a troublesome captive. Sir Emerson Tennent
+asserts that the tame elephants display the most perfect
+conception of every movement, both of the object to be attained
+and the means to accomplish it.
+
+Memory in the Elephant. So far as memory may be regarded as an
+index of an animal's mental capacity, the weight of evidence is
+most convincingly creditable to the elephant. As a test of memory
+in an animal, we hold that a trained performance surpasses all
+others. During the past forty years millions of people have
+witnessed in either Barnum's or Ringling Brothers' shows, or in
+the two combined, an imitation military drill performed by from
+twelve to twenty elephants which in animals of any other species
+would be considered a remarkable performance. The following were
+the commands given by one trainer, understood and remembered by
+each elephant, and executed without any visible hesitation or
+mistake. These we will call the
+
+Accomplishments of Performing Elephants.
+
+1. Fall in line.
+
+2. Roll-call. (As each elephant's name is called, he takes his
+place in the ranks).
+
+3. Present arms. (The trunk is uplifted, with its tip curved
+forward and held in that position for a short time.)
+
+4. Forward, march.
+
+5. File left, march.
+
+6. Right about face, march.
+
+7. Left about face, march.
+
+8. Right by twos, march.
+
+9. Double quick, march.
+
+10. Single file, march.
+
+11. File right.
+
+12. Halt.
+
+13. Ground arms. (All lie down, and lie motionless.)
+
+14. Attention (All arise.)
+
+15. Shoulder arms. (All stand up on their hind-legs.)
+
+In all, fifteen commands were obeyed by the whole company of
+elephants.
+
+It being impossible, or at least impracticable, to supply so large
+a number of animals with furniture and stage properties for a
+further universal performance, certain individuals were supplied
+with the proper articles when necessary for a continuation of the
+performance, as follows:
+
+16. Ringing bells.
+
+17. Climbing up a step-ladder.
+
+18. Going lame in a fore leg.
+
+19. Going lame in a hind leg.
+
+20. Stepping up on a tub turned bottom up.
+
+[Illustration with
+caption: TAME ELEPHANTS ASSISTING IN TYING A WILD CAPTIVE The
+captive elephant is marked "C." The tame elephants have been
+quietly massed around him to keep him still and to give the
+noosers a chance to work at his legs from under the bodies of the
+tame elephants. The black figures on the tame elephants are their
+mahouts, wrapped in blankets and lying down. (From A. G. R.
+Theobald, Mysore)]
+
+21. Standing on a tub on right legs only.
+
+22. The same, on opposite legs.
+
+23. The same, on the fore legs only.
+
+24. The same, on the hind legs only.
+
+25. Using a fan.
+
+26. Turning a hand-organ.
+
+27. Using a handkerchief to wipe the eyes.
+
+28. Sitting in a chair.
+
+29. Kneeling, with the fore legs.
+
+30. Kneeling with the hind legs.
+
+31. Walking astride a man lying lengthwise.
+
+32. Stepping over a man lying down.
+
+33. Forming a pyramid of elephants, by using tubs of various
+sizes.
+
+While it is true that not all of the acts in the latter part of
+this performance were performed by each one of the elephants who
+went through the military drill, there is no reason to doubt the
+entire ability of each individual to be trained to obey the whole
+thirty-three commands, and to remember them all accurately and
+without confusion. The most astonishing feature of the
+performance, aside from the perfect obedience of the huge beasts,
+was their easy confidence and accuracy of memory.
+
+We come now to a consideration of the Accomplishments of Working
+Elephants. In all the timber-forests of southern India every
+captive elephant is taught to perform all the following acts and
+services, as I have witnessed on many occasions:
+
+1. To _salaam,_ or salute, by raising the trunk.
+
+2. To kneel, to receive a load or a passenger.
+
+3. When standing, to hold up a fore-foot, to serve the driver as a
+step in climbing to his place.
+
+4. To lie down to be washed, first on one side and then on the
+other.
+
+5. To open the mouth. 6. To "hand up" any article from the
+ground to the reach of a person riding.
+
+7. To pull down an obstructing bough.
+
+8. To halt.
+
+9. To back.
+
+10. To pick up the end of a drag-rope and place it between the
+teeth.
+
+11. To drag a timber.
+
+12. To kneel and with the head turn a log over, or turn it with
+the tusks if any are present.
+
+13. To push a log into position parallel with others.
+
+14. To balance and carry timbers on the tusks, if possessing tusks
+of sufficient size.
+
+15. To "speak," or trumpet.
+
+16. To work in harness.
+
+Every working elephant in India is supposed to possess the
+intelligence necessary to the performance of all the acts
+enumerated above at the command of his driver, either by spoken
+words, a pressure of the knees or feet, or a touch with the
+driving goad. For the sake of generalization I have purposely
+excluded from this list all tricks and accomplishments which are
+not universally taught to working elephants. We have seen,
+however, that performing elephants are capable of executing
+nearly double the number of acts commonly taught to the workers;
+and, while it is useless to speculate upon the subject, it must be
+admitted that, were a trainer to test an elephant's memory by
+ascertaining the exact number of commands it could remember and
+execute in rotation, the result would far exceed anything yet
+obtained. For my own part, I believe it would exceed a hundred.
+The performance in the circus-ring is limited by time and space,
+and not by the mental capacity of the elephants.
+
+Comprehension under Training. When we come to consider the
+comparative mental receptivity and comprehension of animals under
+man's tuition, we find the elephant absolutely unsurpassed. On
+account of the fact that an elephant is about eighteen years in
+coming to anything like maturity, according to the Indian
+Government standard for working animals, it is far more economical
+and expeditious to catch full-grown elephants in their native
+jungles, and train them, than it is to breed and rear them. About
+ninety per cent of all the elephants now living in captivity were
+caught in a wild state and tamed, and of the remainder at least
+eighty per cent were born in captivity of females that were gravid
+when captured. It will be seen, therefore, that the elephant has
+derived no advantage whatever from ancestral association with man,
+and has gained nothing from the careful selection and breeding
+which, all combined, have made the collie dog, the pointer and the
+setter the wonderfully intelligent animals they are. For many
+generations the horse has been bred for strength, for speed, or
+for beauty of form, but the breeding of the dog has been based
+_chiefly_ on his intelligence as a means to an end. _With
+all his advantages, it is to be doubted whether the comprehensive
+faculties of the dog, even in the most exceptional individuals of
+a whole race, are equal to those of the adult wild elephant fresh
+from the jungle._
+
+The extreme difficulty of teaching a dog _of mature age_ even
+the simplest thing is so well known that it has passed into a
+proverb: "It is hard to teach an old dog new tricks." In other
+words, the conditions _must_ be favorable. But what is the
+case with the elephant? The question shall be answered by G. P.
+Sanderson. In his "Wild Beasts of India," he says: "_Nor are
+there any elephants which can not be easily subjugated, whatever
+their size or age. The largest and oldest elephants are frequently
+the most easily tamed, as they are less apprehensive than the
+younger ones._"
+
+Philosophy of the Elephant in Accepting Captivity and Making the
+Best of It. The most astounding feature in the education of an
+elephant is the suddenness of his transition from a wild and
+lawless denizen of the forest to the quiet, plodding, good-
+tempered, and cheerful beast of draught or burden. I call it
+astounding, because in comparison with what could _not_ be
+done with other wild animals caught when adult, no other word is
+adequate to express the difference. The average wild animal caught
+fully grown is "a terror," and so far as training is concerned,
+perfectly impossible.
+
+There takes place in the keddah, or pen of capture, a mighty
+struggle between the giant strength of the captive and the
+ingenuity of man, ably seconded by a few powerful tame elephants.
+When he finds his strength utterly overcome by man's intelligence,
+he yields to the inevitable, and accepts the situation
+philosophically. Sanderson once had a narrow escape from death
+while on the back of a tame elephant inside a keddah, attempting
+to secure a wild female. She fought his elephant long and
+viciously, with the strength and courage of despair, but finally
+she was overcome by superior numbers. Although her attack on
+Sanderson in the keddah was of the most murderous description, he
+states that her conduct after her defeat was most exemplary, and
+she never afterward showed any signs of ill-temper.
+
+Mr. Sanderson and an elephant-driver once mounted a full-grown
+female elephant _on the sixth day after her capture, without
+even the presence of a tame animal._ Sir Emerson Tennent
+records an instance wherein an elephant fed from the hand on the
+first night of its capture, and in a very few days evinced
+pleasure at being patted on the head. Such instances as the above
+can be multiplied indefinitely. To what else shall they be
+attributed than philosophic reasoning on the part of the elephant?
+The orang-utan and the chimpanzee, so often put forward as his
+intellectual superior, when captured alive at any other period
+than that of helpless infancy, are vicious, aggressive, and
+intractable not only for weeks and months, but for the remainder
+of their lives. Orangs captured when fully adult exhibit the most
+tiger-like ferocity, and are wholly intractable.
+
+If dogs are naturally superior to elephants in natural intellect,
+it should be as easy to tame and educate newly-caught wild dogs or
+wolves of mature age, as newly-caught elephants. But, so far from
+this being the case, it is safe to assert that it would be
+_impossible_ to train even the most intelligent company of
+pointers, setters or collies ever got together to perform the
+feats accomplished with such promptness and accuracy by all
+regularly trained work elephants.
+
+The successful training of all elephants up to the required
+working point is so fully conceded in India that the market value
+of an animal depends wholly upon its age, sex, build and the
+presence or absence of good tusks. The animal's education is
+either sufficient for the buyer, or, if it is not, he knows it can
+be made so.
+
+Promptness and Accuracy in the Execution of Man's Orders. This is
+the fourth quality which serves as a key to the mental capacity
+and mental processes of an animal.
+
+To me the most impressive feature of a performance of elephants in
+the circus-ring is the fact that every command uttered is obeyed
+with true military promptness and freedom from hesitation, and so
+accurately that an entire performance often is conducted and
+concluded without the repetition of a single command. One by one
+the orders are executed with the most human-like precision and
+steadiness, amounting sometimes to actual nonchalance. Human
+beings of the highest type scarcely could do better. To some
+savage races--for example, the native Australians, the Veddahs of
+Ceylon, or the Jackoons of the Malay Peninsula, I believe that
+such a performance would be impossible, even under training. I do
+not believe their minds act with sufficient rapidity and accuracy
+to enable a company of them to go through with such a wholly
+artificial performance as successfully as the elephants do.
+
+The thoughtful observer does not need to be told that the brain of
+the ponderous quadruped acts, as far as it goes, with the same
+rapidity and precision as that of an intelligent man,--and this,
+too, in a performance that is wholly artificial and acquired.
+In the performance of Bartholomew's horses, of which I once kept a
+record in detail, even the most accomplished members of his troupe
+often had to be commanded again and again before they would obey.
+A command often was repeated for the fifth or sixth time before
+the desired result was obtained. I noted particularly that not one
+of his horses,--which were the most perfectly trained of any ever
+seen by me,--was an exception to this rule, or performed his
+tasks with the prompt obedience and self-confidence so noticeable
+in _each one_ of the sixteen Barnum elephants. The horses
+usually obeyed with tardiness and hesitation, and very often
+manifested nervousness and uncertainty.
+
+In the mind of the elephant, e. g., _each_ elephant, there
+was no confusion of ideas or lapses of memory, but, on the
+contrary, the mental grasp on the whole subject was so secure and
+comprehensive that the animal felt himself the master of the
+situation.
+
+I have never yet seen a performance of trained dogs which could be
+considered worthy of serious comparison with the accomplishments
+of either performing or working elephants. In the matter of native
+educational capacity the dog can not on any grounds be considered
+the rival of the elephant. The alleged mental superiority of the
+dog is based almost wholly upon his powers of independent
+reasoning and observation as exhibited in a state of almost
+perfect _freedom._ Until the elephant who has grown to
+maturity under man's influence, is allowed the dog's freedom to
+plan and execute, no conclusive comparison between them can be
+made.
+
+Moral Qualities of the Elephant. Finally, we come to a
+consideration of the elephant's moral qualities that have a direct
+bearing upon our subject. In India, excepting the professional
+"rogue," the elephant bears a spotless reputation for patience,
+amiability and obedience. The "rogue" is an individual afflicted
+with either an incorrigible disposition, or else is afflicted with
+insanity, either temporary or permanent. I know of no instance on
+record wherein a _normal elephant_ with a _healthy mind_
+has been guilty of unprovoked homicide, or even of attempting it.
+I have never heard of an elephant in India so much as kicking,
+striking or otherwise injuring either human beings or other
+domestic animals. There have been several instances, however, of
+persons killed by elephants which were temporarily insane, or
+"_must,_" and also by others permanently insane. In America
+several persons have been killed in revenge for ill treatment. In
+Brooklyn a female elephant once killed a civilian who burned her
+trunk with a lighted cigar. It is the misfortune but not the fault
+of the elephant that in advanced age or by want of necessary
+exercise, he is liable to be attacked by _must,_ or sexual
+insanity, during which period he is clearly irresponsible for his
+acts.
+
+So many men have been killed by elephants in this country that of
+late years the idea has been steadily gaining ground that
+elephants are naturally ill-tempered, and vicious to a dangerous
+extent. Under fair conditions, nothing could be farther from the
+truth. We have seen that in the hands of the "gentle Hindu" the
+elephant is safe and reliable, and never attacks man except under
+the circumstances already stated. In this country, however, many
+an elephant is at the mercy of quick-tempered and sometimes
+revengeful showmen, who very often do not understand the
+temperaments of the animals under their control, and who during
+the traveling season are rendered perpetually ill-tempered and
+vindictive by reason of overwork and insufficient sleep. With such
+masters as these it is no wonder that occasionally an animal
+rebels, and executes vengeance. In Minneapolis in December an
+elephant once went on a rampage through the freezing of its ears.
+I am quite convinced that an elephant could by ill treatment be
+driven to insanity, and I have no doubt that this has been done
+many times. Our bad elephant, Gunda, was bad by nature, but
+finally he became afflicted with sexual insanity, for which there
+was no cure. When commanded by man, the elephant will tear a
+criminal limb from limb, or crush him to death with his knees, or
+go out to battle holding a sword in his trunk. He will, when told
+to do so, attack his kind with fury and persistence; but in the
+course of many hours, and even days, spent in watching wild herds,
+I never yet saw a single individual show any signs of impatience
+or ill-temper toward his fellows.
+
+It is safe to say that, thus far, not one half the elephant's
+mental capabilities have been developed, or even understood. It
+would be of great interest to determine by experiment the full
+educational capacity of this interesting quadruped. It would be
+equally interesting to determine the limit of its reasoning
+powers in applied mechanics. An animal that can turn a hand-organ
+at the proper speed, or ring a telephone and go through the
+motions of listening with a receiver, can be taught to push a
+smoothing-plane invented purposely for him; but whether he would
+learn of himself to plane the rough surface smooth, and let the
+smooth ones remain untouched, is an open question.
+
+While it is generally fruitless and unsatisfactory to enter the
+field of speculation, I can not resist the temptation to assert my
+belief that an elephant can be taught to read written characters,
+and also to express some of his own thoughts or states of feeling
+in writing. It would be a perfectly simple matter to prepare
+suitable appliances by which the sagacious animal could hold a
+crayon in his trunk, and mark upon a surface adapted to his
+convenience. Many an elephant has been taught to make chalk-marks
+on a blackboard. In Julian's work on "The Nature of Animals," the
+eleventh chapter of the second book, he describes in detail the
+wonderful performances of elephants at Rome, all of which he saw.
+One passage is of peculiar interest to us, and the following has
+been given as a translation: "...I saw them writing letters on
+Roman tablets with their trunks, neither looking awry nor turning
+aside. The hand, however, of the teacher was placed so as to be a
+guide in the formation of the letters; and, while it was writing,
+the animal kept its eye fixed down in an accomplished and scholar-
+like manner."
+
+I can conceive how an elephant may be taught that certain
+characters represent certain ideas, and that they are capable of
+intelligent combinations. The system and judgment and patient
+effort which developed an active, educated, and even refined
+intellect in Laura Bridgman--deaf, dumb and blind from birth--
+ought certainly to be able to teach a clear-headed, intelligent
+elephant to express at least _some_ of his thoughts in
+writing.
+
+I believe it is as much an act of murder to wantonly take the life
+of a healthy elephant as to kill a native Australian or a Central-
+African savage. If it is more culpable to kill an ignorant human
+savage than an elephant, it is also more culpable to kill an
+elephant than an echinoderm. Many men are both morally and
+intellectually lower than many quadrupeds, and are, in my opinion,
+as wholly destitute of that indefinable attribute called soul as
+all the lower animals commonly are supposed to be.
+
+If an investigator like Dr. Yerkes, and an educator like Dr. Howe,
+should take it in hand to develop the mind of the elephant to the
+highest possible extent, their results would be awaited with
+peculiar interest, and it would be strange if they did not
+necessitate a revision of the theories now common among those who
+concede an immortal soul to every member of the human race, even
+down to the lowest, but deny it to all the animals below man.
+
+Curvature in the Brain of an Elephant. There is curvature of the
+spine; and there is curvature in the brain. It afflicts the human
+race, and all other vertebrates are subject to it.
+
+In the Zoological Park we have had, and still have, a persistent
+case of it in a female Indian elephant now twenty-three years of
+age, named "Alice." Her mental ailment several times manifested
+itself in Luna Park, her former home; but when we purchased the
+animal her former owners carelessly forgot to mention it.
+
+Four days after Alice reached her new temporary home in our
+Antelope House, and while being marched around the Park for
+exercise, she heard the strident cry of one of our mountain lions,
+and immediately turned and bolted.
+
+Young as she was at that time, her two strong and able-bodied
+keepers, Thuman and Bayreuther, were utterly unable to restrain
+her. She surged straight forward for the front door of the Reptile
+House, and into that building she went, with the two keepers
+literally swinging from her ears.
+
+As the great beast suddenly loomed up above the crowd of
+sightseers in the quiet building, the crowd screamed and became
+almost panic-stricken.
+
+Partly by her own volition and partly by encouragement, she
+circumnavigated the turtle-bank and went out.
+
+Once outside she went where she pleased, and the keepers were
+quite unable to control her. Half an hour later she again headed
+for the Reptile House and we knew that she would again try to
+enter.
+
+In view of the great array of plate glass cases in that building,
+many of them containing venomous cobras, rattlesnakes, moccasins
+and bushmasters, we were thoroughly frightened at the prospect of
+that crazy beast again coming within reach of them.
+
+With our men fighting frantically, and exhausted by their
+prolonged efforts to control her, Alice again entered the Reptile
+House. As she attempted to pass into the main hall,--the danger
+zone,--our men succeeded in chaining her front feet to the two
+steel posts of the guard rail, set solidly in concrete on each
+side of the doorway. Alice tried to pull up those posts by their
+roots, but they held; and there in front of the Crocodile Pool the
+keepers and I camped for the night. We fed her hay and bread, to
+keep her partially occupied, and wondered what she would do in the
+morning when we would attempt to remove her.
+
+Soon after dawn a force of keepers arrived. Chaining the
+elephant's front feet together so that she could not step more
+than a foot, we loosed the chains from the two posts and ordered
+her to come to an "about face," and go out. Instead of doing that
+she determinedly advanced toward the right, and came within reach
+of twelve handsome glazed cases of live reptiles that stood on a
+long table. Frantically the men tried to drive her back. For
+answer she put her two front feet on the top bar of the steel
+guard rail and smashed ten feet of it to the floor. Then she began
+to butt those glass snake cages off their table, one by one.
+
+_"Boom!" "Bang!" "Crash!"_ they went on the floor, one after
+another. Soon fourteen banded rattlesnakes of junior size were
+wriggling over the floor. "Smash" went more cases. The Reptile
+House was in a great uproar. Soon the big wall cases would be
+reached, and then--I would be obliged to shoot her dead, to avoid
+a general delivery of poisonous serpents, and big pythons from
+twenty to twenty-two feet long. The room resounded with our
+shouts, and the angry trumpeting of Alice.
+
+At last, by vigorous work with the elephant hooks, Alice was
+turned and headed out of the building. A foot at a time she passed
+out, then headed toward the bear dens. Midway, we steered her in
+among some young maple trees, and soon had her front legs chained
+to one of them. Alice tried to push it over, and came near to
+doing so.
+
+Then we quickly tied her hind legs together,--and she was all
+ours. Seeing that all was clear for a fall, we joyously pushed
+Alice off her feet. She went over, and fell prone upon her side.
+In three minutes all her feet were securely anchored to trees, and
+we sat down upon her prostrate body.
+
+At that crowning indignity Alice was the maddest elephant in the
+world for that day. We gave her food, and the use of her trunk,
+and left her there twenty-four hours, to think it over. She
+deserved a vast beating with canes; but we gave her no punishment
+whatever. It would have served no good purpose.
+
+During the interval we telephoned to Coney Island, and asked Dick
+Richards, the former keeper of Alice, to come and reason with her.
+Promptly he came,--and he is still guiding as best he can the
+checkered destinies of that erring female.
+
+When Alice was unwound and permitted to arise,--with certain
+limitations as to her progress through the world,--it was evident
+that she was in a chastened mood. She quietly marched to her
+quarters at the Antelope House, and there we interned her. But
+that was not all of Alice. Very soon we had to move her to the
+completed Elephant House, half a mile away. Keeper Richards said
+that two or three times she had bolted into buildings at Luna
+Park; so we prepared to overcome her idiosyncrasies by a
+combination of force and strategy. I had the men procure a strong
+rope about one hundred feet long, in the middle of which I had
+them fix a very nice steel hook, large enough to hook suddenly
+around a post or a tree.
+
+One end of that rope we tied to the left foot of Charming Alice,
+and the remainder of the rope was carried out at full length in
+front of her.
+
+Willingly enough she started from the Antelope House, and Richards
+led her about three hundred feet. Then she stopped, and
+disregarding all advice and hooks, started to come about, to
+return to the Antelope House. Quickly the anchor was hooked around
+the nearest fence post, and Alice fetched up against a force
+stronger than herself. She was greatly annoyed, but in a few
+minutes decided to go on.
+
+Another lap of two hundred feet, and the same act was repeated,
+without the slightest variation.
+
+This process continued for nearly half a mile. By that time we
+were opposite the Elk House and Alice had become wild with baffled
+rage. She tried hard to smash fences and uproot trees.
+
+At last she stood still and refused to move another foot; and then
+we played our ace of trumps. Near by, twenty laborers were
+working. Calling all hands, they took hold of that outstretched
+rope, and heading straight for the new Elephant House started a
+new tug of war. Every "heave-ho" of that hilarious company meant a
+three-foot step forward for Gentle Alice,--willy-nilly. As she
+raged and roared, the men heaved and laughed. A yard at a time
+they pulled that fatal left foot, into the corral and into the
+apartment of Alice; and she had to follow it.
+
+Ever since that time, Alice has been permanently under arrest, and
+confined to her quarters; but within the safe precincts of two
+steel-bound yards she carries children on her back, and in summer
+earns her daily bread.
+
+Elephant Mentality in the Jungle. Mr. A. E. Ross, while
+Commissioner of Forests in Burma, had many interesting experiences
+with elephants, and he related the following:
+
+A bad-tempered mahout who had been cruel to his work-elephant
+finally so enraged the animal that it attempted to take revenge.
+To forestall an accident, the mahout was discharged, and for two
+years he completely disappeared. After that lapse of time he
+quietly reappeared, looking for an engagement. As the line of
+elephants stood at attention at feeding time, with a score of
+persons in a group before them, the elephant instantly recognized
+the face of his old enemy, rushed for him, and drove him out of
+the camp.
+
+An ill-tempered and dangerous elephant, feared by everybody, once
+had the end of his trunk nearly cut off in an accident. While the
+animal was frantic with the pain of it, Mr. Ross ordered him to
+lie down. As the patient lay in quiet submission, he dressed the
+wound and put the trunk in rude bamboo splints. The elephant
+wisely aided the amateur elephant doctor until the wound healed;
+and afterward that once dangerous animal showed dog-like affection
+for Mr. Ross.
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+THE MENTAL AND MORAL TRAITS OF BEARS
+
+
+Considered as a group, the bears of the world are supremely
+interesting animals. In fact, no group surpasses them save the
+Order Primates, and it requires the enrollment of all the apes,
+baboons and monkeys to accomplish it.
+
+From sunrise to sunrise a bear is an animal of original thought
+and vigorous enterprise. Put a normal bear in any new situation
+that you please, he will try to make himself master of it. Use any
+new or strange material that you please, of wood, metal, stone or
+concrete, and he will cheerfully set out to find its weakest
+points and destroy it. If one board in a wall happens to be of
+wood a little softer than its fellows, with wonderful quickness
+and precision he will locate it. To tear his way out of an
+ordinary wooden cage he asks nothing better than a good crack or a
+soft knot as a starting point.
+
+Let him who thinks that all animals are mere machines of heredity
+and nothing more, take upon himself the task of collecting,
+yarding, housing and KEEPING a collection of thirty bears from all
+over the world, representing from ten to fifteen species. In a
+very short time the believer in bear knowledge by inheritance
+only, will begin to see evidences of new thought.
+
+In spite of our best calculations, in twenty-two years and a total
+of about seventy bears, we have had three bear escapes. The
+species involved were an Indian sloth bear, an American black bear
+and a Himalayan black bear. The troublesome three laboriously
+invented processes by which, supported by surpassing acrobatics,
+they were able to circumvent our overhanging bars. Now, did the
+mothers of those bears bequeath to them the special knowledge
+which enabled them to perform the acrobatic mid-air feat of
+warping themselves over that sharp-pointed overhang barrier? No;
+because none of their parents ever saw steel cage-work of any
+kind.
+
+Universal Traits. The traits common to the majority of bear
+_species_ as we see them manifested in captivity are the
+following:
+
+First, playfulness; second, spasmodic treachery; third,
+contentment in comfortable captivity; fourth, love of water;
+fifth, enterprise in the mischievous destruction of things that
+can be destroyed.
+
+The bears of the world are distributed throughout Asia, Borneo,
+the heavy forests of Europe, all North America, and the
+northwestern portion of South America. In view of their
+wonderfully interesting traits, it is surprising that so few books
+have been written about them. The variations in bear character
+and habit are almost as wide as the distribution of the species.
+
+There are four books in English that are wholly devoted to
+American bears and their doings. These are "The Grizzly Bear" and
+"The Black Bear," by William H. Wright, of Spokane(Scribner's),
+"The Grizzly Bear," by Enos A. Mills, and "The Adventures of James
+Capen Adams." In 1918 Dr. C. Hart Merriam published as No. 41 of
+"North American Fauna" a "Review of the Grizzly and Brown Bears of
+North America" (U.S. Govt.). This is a scientific paper of 135
+pages, the product of many years of collecting and study, and it
+recognizes and describes eighty-six species and sub-species of
+those two groups in North America. The classification is based
+chiefly upon the skulls of the animals.
+
+It is unfortunate that up to date no bear student with a tireless
+pen has written The Book of Bears. But let no man rashly assume
+that he knows "all about bears." While many bears do think and act
+along certain lines, I am constantly warning my friends, "Beware
+of the Bear! You never can tell what he will do next." I hasten to
+state that of all the bears of the world, the "pet" bear is the
+most dangerous.
+
+A Story of a "Pet" Bear. In one of the cities of Canadaa
+gentleman greatly interested in animals kept a young bear cub, as
+a pet; and once more I say--if thine enemy offend thee, present
+him with a black-bear cub. The bear was kept in a back yard,
+chained to a post, and after his first birthday that alleged "pet"
+dominated everything within his circumpolar region.
+
+One day a lady and gentleman called to see the pet, to observe how
+tame and good-natured it was. The owner took on his arm a basket
+of tempting apples, and going into the bear's territory proceeded
+to show how the Black One would eat from his owner's hand.
+
+The bear was given an apple, which was promptly eaten. The owner
+reached for a second, but instead of accepting it, the bear
+instantly became a raging demon. He struck Mr. C. a lightning-
+quick and powerful blow upon his head, ripping his scalp open.
+With horrible growls and bawling, the beast, standing fully erect,
+struck again and again at his victim, who threw his arms across
+his face to save it from being torn to pieces. Fearful blows from
+the bear's claw-shod paws rained upon Mr. C.'s head, and his scalp
+was almost torn away. In the melee he fell, and the bear pounced
+upon him, to kill him.
+
+The visiting gentleman rushed for a club. Meanwhile the lady
+visitor, rendered frantic by the sight of the bear killing her
+host, did a very brave but suicidally dangerous thing. She
+_seized the hindquarters_ of the bear, gripping the fur in
+her bare hands, and actually dragged the animal off its victim!
+Fortunately at that dangerous juncture the lady's husband rushed
+up with a club, beat the raging animal as it deserved, and
+mastered it.
+
+The owner of the bear survived his injuries, and by a great effort
+the surgeons saved his scalp. A "pet" bear in its second year
+may become the most dangerous of all wild animals. This is
+because it _seems_ so affectionate and docile, and yet is
+liable to turn in one second,--and without the slightest warning,
+--into a deadly enemy.
+
+Scores of times we have seen this quick change in temper take
+place in bears inhabiting our dens. Four bears will be quietly and
+peacefully consuming their bread and vegetables when,--
+"_biff!_" Like a stroke of lightning a hairy right arm shoots
+out and lands with a terriffic jolt on the head of a peaceful
+companion. The victim roars,--in surprise, pain and protest, and
+then a fight is on. The aggressor roars and bawls, and follows up
+his blow as if to exterminate his perfectly inoffensive cage-mate.
+
+Mean and cruel visitors are fond of starting bear fights by
+throwing into the cages tempting bits of fruit, or peanuts; and
+sometimes a peach stone kills a valuable bear by getting jammed in
+the pyloric orifice of the stomach.
+
+The owners of bears should NEVER allow visitors to throw food to
+them. Unlimited feeding by visitors will spoil the tempers of the
+best bears in the world.
+
+Power of Expression in Bears. Next to the apes and monkeys, I
+regard bears as the most demonstrative of all wild animals. The
+average bear is proficient in the art of expression. The position
+of his ears, the pose of his head and neck, the mobility of his
+lips and his walking or his resting attitudes all tell their
+story.
+
+To facial and bodily expression the bear adds his voice; and
+herein he surpasses most other wild animals! According to his mood
+he whines, he threatens, or warns by loud snorting. He roars with
+rage, and when in pain he cries, or he bawls and howls. In
+addition to this he threatens an enemy by snapping his jaws
+together with a mighty ominous clank, accompanied by a warning
+nasal whine. An angry bear will at times give a sudden rake with
+his claws to the ground, or the concrete on which he stands.
+Now, with all this facility for emotional expression, backed by an
+alert and many-sided mind, boundless energy and a playful
+disposition, is it strange that bears are among the most
+interesting animals in the world?
+
+Bears in Captivity. With but few exceptions the bears of the world
+are animals with philosophic minds, and excellent reasoning power,
+though rarely equal to that of the elephant. One striking proof of
+this is the promptness with which adult animals accept
+_comfortable_ captivity, and settle down in contentment.
+What we mean by comfortable captivity very shortly will be
+defined.
+
+No bear should be kept in a cage with stone walls and an uneven
+floor; nor without a place to climb; and wherein life is a daily
+chapter of inactive and lonesome discomfort and unhappiness. The
+old-fashioned bear "pit" is an abomination of desolation, a sink-
+hole of misery, and all such means of bear torture should be
+banished from all civilized countries.
+
+He who cannot make bears comfortable, contented and happy should
+not keep any.
+
+A large collection of bears of many species properly installed may
+be relied upon to reveal many variations of temperament and
+mentality, from the sanguine and good-natured stoic to the
+hysterical demon. Captivity brings out many traits of character
+that in a wild state are either latent or absent.
+
+Prominent Traits of Prominent Species. After twenty years of daily
+observation we now know that
+
+The grizzly is the most keen-minded species of all bears.
+
+The big Alaskan brown bears are the least troublesome in
+captivity.
+
+The polar bear lives behind a mask, and is not to be trusted.
+
+The black bear is the nearest approach to a general average in
+ursine character.
+
+The European brown bears are best for training and performances.
+
+The Japanese black bear is nervous, cowardly and hysterical; the
+little Malay sun bear is the most savage and unsatisfactory.
+
+The Lesson of the Polar and Grizzly. The polar bears of the north,
+and the Rocky Mountain grizzlies, a hundred years ago were bold
+and aggressive. That was in the days of the weak, small-bore,
+muzzle-loading rifles, black powder and slow firing. Today all
+that is changed. All those bears have recognized the fearful
+deadliness of the long-range, high-power repeating rifle, and the
+polar and the grizzly flee from man at the first sight of him,
+fast and far. No grizzly attacks a man unless it has been
+attacked, or wounded, or cornered, or _thinks_ it is
+cornered. As an exception, Mr. Stefansson observed two or three
+polar bears who seemed to be quite unacquainted with man, and but
+little afraid of him.
+
+The great California grizzly is now believed to be totally
+extinct. The campaign of Mr. J. A. McGuire, Editor of _Outdoor
+Life_ Magazine, to secure laws for the reasonable protection of
+bears, is wise, timely and thoroughly deserving of success because
+such laws are now needed. The bag limit on grizzlies this side of
+Alaska should be one per year, and no trapping of grizzlies should
+be permitted anywhere.
+
+The big brown bears of Alaska have not yet recognized the true
+deadliness of man. They have vanquished so many Indians, and
+injured or killed so many white men that as yet they are unafraid,
+insolent, aggressive and dangerous. They need to be shot up so
+thoroughly that they will learn the lesson of the polars and
+grizzlies,--that man is a dangerous animal, and the only safe
+course is to run from him at first sight.
+
+Bears Learn the Principles of Wild Life Protection. Ordinarily
+both the grizzlies and black bears are shy, suspicious and
+intensely "wild" creatures; and therefore the quickness and
+thoroughness with which they learn that they are in sanctuary is
+all the more surprising. The protected bears of the Yellowstone
+Park for years have been to tourists a source of wonder and
+delight. The black bears are recklessly trustful, and familiar
+quite to the utmost limits. The grizzlies are more reserved, but
+they have done what the blacks have very wisely not done. They
+have broken the truce of protection, and attacked men on their
+own ground.
+
+Strange to say, of several attacks made upon camping parties, the
+most serious and most nearly fatal was that of 1917 upon Ned
+Frost, the well-known guide of Cody, Wyoming, and his field
+companion. They were sleeping under their wagon, well wrapped from
+the cold in heavy blankets and comfortables, and it is to their
+bedding alone that they owe their lives. They were viciously
+attacked by a grizzly, dragged about and mauled, and Frost was
+seriously bitten and clawed. Fortunately the bedding engaged the
+activities of their assailant sufficiently that the two men
+finally escaped alive.
+
+How Buffalo Jones Disciplined a Bad Grizzly. The most ridiculous
+and laughable performance ever put up with a wild grizzly bear as
+an actor was staged by Col. C. J.("Buffalo") Jones when he was
+superintendent of the wild animals of the Yellowstone Park. He
+marked down for punishment a particularly troublesome grizzly that
+had often raided tourists' camps at a certain spot, to steal food.
+Very skilfully he roped that grizzly around one of his hind legs,
+suspended him from the limb of a tree, and while the disgraced and
+outraged silver-tip swung to and fro, bawling, cursing, snapping,
+snorting and wildly clawing at the air, Buffalo Jones whaled it
+with a bean-pole until he was tired. With commendable forethought
+Mr. Jones had for that occasion provided a moving-picture camera,
+and this film always produces roars of laughter.
+
+Now, here is where we guessed wrongly. We supposed that whenever
+and wherever a well-beaten grizzly was turned loose, the angry
+animal would attack the lynching party. But not so. When Mr.
+Jones' chastened grizzly was turned loose, it thought not of
+reprisals. It wildly fled to the tall timber, plunged into it, and
+there turned over a new leaf.  I  once said: "C. J., you ought to shoot
+some of those grizzlies, and teach all the rest of them to behave
+themselves."
+
+[Illustration with caption: WILD
+BEARS QUICKLY RECOGNIZE PROTECTION The truce of the black bears of
+the Yellowstone Park. The grizzlies are not nearly so trustful.
+Photographed by Edmund Heller, 1921. (All rights reserved.)]
+
+"I know it!" he responded, "I know it! But Col. Anderson won't let
+me: He says that if we did, some people would make a great fuss
+about it; and I suppose they would."
+
+Recently, however, it has been found imperatively necessary to
+teach the Park grizzlies a few lessons on the sanctity of a
+sanctuary, and the rights of man.
+
+We will now record a few cases that serve to illustrate the mental
+traits of bears.
+
+Case I. The Steel Panel. Two huge male Alaskan brown bears, Ivan
+and Admiral, lived in adjoining yards. The partition between them
+consisted of panels of steel. The upper panels were of heavy bar
+iron. The bottom panels, each four feet high and six feet long,
+were of flat steel bars woven into a basket pattern. The ends of
+these flat bars had been passed through narrow slots in the heavy
+steel frame, and firmly clinched. We would have said that no land
+animal smaller than an elephant could pull out one of those
+panels.
+
+By some strange aberration in management, one day it chanced that
+Admiral's grizzly bear wife was introduced for a brief space into
+Ivan's den. Immediately Admiral went into a rage, on the ground
+that his constitutional rights had been infringed. At once he set
+to work to recover his stolen companion. He began to test those
+partition panels, one by one. Finally he found the one that seemed
+to him least powerful, and he at once set to work to tear it out
+of its frame.
+
+The keepers knew that he could not succeed; but he thought
+differently. Hooking his short but very powerful claws into the
+meshes he braced backward and pulled. After a fierce struggle an
+upper corner yielded. Then the other corner yielded; and at last
+the whole upper line gave way.
+
+I reached the scene just as he finished tearing both ends free. I
+saw him bend the steel panel inward, crush it down with his
+thousand pounds of weight, and dash through the yawning hole into
+his rival's arena.
+
+Then ensued a great battle. The two huge bears rose high on their
+hind legs, fiercely struck out with their front paws, and fought
+mouth to mouth, always aiming to grip the throat. They bit each
+other's cheeks but no serious injuries were inflicted, and very
+soon by the vigorous use of pick-handles the two bear keepers
+drove the fighters apart.
+
+Case 2. Ivan's Begging Scheme. Ivan came from Alaska when a small
+cub and he has long been the star boarder at the Bear Dens. He is
+the most good-natured bear that we have, and he has many thoughts.
+Having observed the high arm motion that a keeper makes in
+throwing loaves of bread over the top of the nine-foot cage work,
+Ivan adopted that motion as part of his sign language when food is
+in sight outside. He stands up high, like a man, and with his left
+arm he motions, just as the keepers do. Again and again he waves
+his mighty arm, coaxingly, suggestively, and it says as plain as
+print: "Come on! Throw it in! Throw it!"
+
+If there is too much delay in the response, he motions with his
+right paw, also, both arms working together. It is irresistible.
+At least 500 times has he thus appealed, and he will do it
+whenever a loaf of bread is held up as the price of an exhibition
+of his sign language. Of course Ivan thought this out himself, and
+put it into practice for a very definite purpose.
+
+Case 3. Ivan's Invention for Cracking Beef Bones. Ivan invented a
+scheme for cracking large beef bones, to get at the ultimate
+morsels of marrow. He stands erect on his hind feet, first holds
+the picked bone against his breast, then with his right paw he
+poises it very carefully upon the back of his left paw. When it is
+well balanced he flings it about ten feet straight up into the
+air. When it falls upon the concrete floor a sufficient number of
+times it breaks, and Ivan gets his well-earned reward. This same
+plan was pursued by Billy, another Alaskan brown bear. Case 4. A
+Bear's Ingenious Use of a Door. When Admiral is annoyed and chased
+disagreeably by either of his two cage-mates he runs into his
+sleeping-den, slams the steel door shut from the inside, and thus
+holds his tormentors completely at bay until it suits him to roll
+the door back again and come out. At night in winter when he goes
+to bed he almost always shuts the door tightly from within, and
+keeps it closed all night. He does not believe in sleeping-
+porches, nor wide-open windows in sleeping-quarters.
+
+Case 5. Admiral Will Not Tolerate White Boots. Recently our bear
+keepers have found that Admiral has violent objections to boots of
+white rubber. Keeper Schmidt purchased a pair, to take the place
+of his old black ones, but when he first wore them into the den
+for washing the floor the bear flew at him so quickly and so
+savagely that he had all he could do to make a safe exit. A second
+trial having resulted similarly, he gave the boots a coat of black
+paint. But one coat was not wholly satisfactory to Admiral. He saw
+the hated white through the one coat of black, promptly registered
+"disapproval," and the patient keeper was forced to add another
+coat of black. After that the new boots were approved.
+
+Case 6. The Mystery of Death. Once upon a time we had a Japanese
+black bear named Jappie, quartered in a den with a Himalayan black
+bear,--the species with long, black side-whiskers and a white tip
+to its chin. The Japanese bear was about one-third smaller than
+the Himalayan black.
+
+One night the Japanese bear died, and in the morning the keepers
+found it lying on the level concrete top of the sleeping dens.
+
+At once they went in to remove the body; but the Himalayan black
+bear angrily refused to permit them to touch it. For half an hour
+the men made one effort after another to coax, or entice or to
+drive the guardian bear away from the dead body, but in vain. When
+I reached the strange and uncanny scene, the guardian bear was in
+a great rage. It took a position across the limp body, and from
+that it fiercely refused to move or to be driven. As an experiment
+we threw in a lot of leaves, and the guardian promptly raked them
+over the dead one and stood pat.
+
+We procured a long pole, and from a safe place on the top of the
+nearest overhang, a keeper tried to prod or push away the guardian
+of the dead. The living one snarled, roared, and with savage vigor
+bit the end of the pole. By the time the bear was finally enticed
+with food down to the front of the den, and the body removed,
+seven hours had elapsed.
+
+Now, what were the ideas and emotions of the bear? One man can
+answer about as well as another. We think that the living bear
+realized that something terrible had happened to its cage-mate,--
+in whom he never before had manifested any guardianship
+interest,--and he felt called upon to defend a friend who was very
+much down and out. It was the first time that he had encountered
+the great mystery, Death; and whatever it was, he resented it.
+
+Case 7. A Terrible Punishment. Once we had a particularly mean
+and vicious young Adirondack black bear named Tommy. In a short
+time he became known as Tommy the Terror. We put him into a big
+yard with Big Ben, from Florida, and two other bears smaller than
+Ben, but larger than himself.
+
+In a short time the Terror had whipped and thoroughly cowed Bruno
+and Jappie. Next he tackled Ben; but Ben's great bulk was too much
+for him. Finally he devoted a lot of time to bullying and reviling
+_through the bars_ a big but good-natured cinnamon bear,
+named Bob, who lived in the next den. In all his life up to that
+time, Bob had had only one fight. Tommy's treatment of Bob was so
+irritating to everybody that it was much remarked upon; and
+presently we learned how Bob felt about it.
+
+One morning while doing the cage work, the keeper walked through
+the partition gate from Bob's den into Tommy's. He slammed the
+iron gate behind him, as usual, but this time the latch did not catch
+as usual. In a moment Bob became aware of this unstable condition.
+Very innocently he sauntered up to the gate, pushed it open, and
+walked through into the next den. The keeper was then twenty feet
+away, but a warning cry from without set him in motion to stop
+the intruder.
+
+[Illustration
+with caption: ALASKAN BROWN BEAR "IVAN" BEGGING FOR FOOD He
+invented the very expressive sign language that he employs.]
+
+[Illustration with caption: THE MYSTERY OF DEATH. Himalayan bear
+jealously guarding the body of a dead cage-mate.]
+
+Having no club to face, Bob quietly ignored the keeper's broom.
+Paying not the slightest attention to the three inoffensive
+bears, Bob fixed his gaze on the Terror, at the far end of the
+den, then made straight for him. Tommy made a feeble attempt at
+defense, but Bob seized him by the back, bit him, and savagely
+shook him as a terrier shakes a rat. The Terror yelled lustily
+"Murder! Murder! Help!" but none of the other bears made a move
+for his defense. Bob was there to give Tommy the punishment that
+was due him for his general meanness and his insulting behavior.
+
+The horrified keeper secured his pike-pole, with a stout spike set
+in the end for defense, and drove the spike into Bob's shoulder.
+Bob went right on killing the Terror. Again the keeper drove in
+his goad, and blood flowed freely; but Bob paid not the slightest
+attention to this severe punishment.
+
+Then the keeper began to beat the cinnamon over the nose; and that
+made him yield. He gave the Terror a parting shake, let him go,
+and with a bloody shoulder deliberately walked out of that den and
+into his own. The punishment of the Terror went to the full limit,
+and we think all those bears approved it. In a few hours he died
+of his injuries.
+
+Case 8. The Grizzly Bear and the String. One of the best
+illustrations I know of the keenness and originality of a wild
+bear's mind and senses, is found in Mr. W. H. Wright's account of
+the grizzly bear he did not catch with an elk bait and two set
+guns, in the Bitter Root Mountains. This story is related in
+Chapter VI.
+
+Case 9. Silver King's Memory of His Capture. At this moment we
+have a huge polar bear who refuses to forget that he was captured
+in the water, in Kane Basin, and who now avoids the water in his
+swimming pool, almost as much as any burned child dreads fire.
+Throughout the hottest months of midsummer old Silver King lies on
+the rock floor of his huge and handsome den, grouching and
+grumbling, and not more than once a week enjoying a swim in his
+spacious pool. No other polar bear of ours ever manifested such an
+aversion for water. The other polar bears who have occupied that
+same den loved that pool beyond compare, and used to play in its
+waters for hours at a time. Evidently the chase of Silver King
+through green arctic water and over ice floes, mile after mile,
+his final lassoing, and the drag behind a motor boat to the ship
+were, to old Silver King, a terrible tragedy. Now he regards all
+deep water as a trap to catch bears, but, strange to relate, the
+winter's snow and ice seem to renew his interest in his swimming
+pool. Occasionally he is seen at play in the icy water, and toying
+with pieces of ice.
+
+Memory in Bears. I think that ordinarily bear memory for human
+faces and voices is not long. Once I saw Mr. William Lyman
+Underwood test the memory of a black bear that for eighteen months
+had been his household pet and daily companion. After a
+separation of a year, which the bear spent in a public park near
+Boston, Mr. Underwood approached, alone, close up to the bars of
+his cage. He spoke to him in the old way, and called him by his
+old name, but the bear gave absolutely no sign of recognition or
+remembrance.
+
+How a Wild Grizzly Bear Caches Food. The silver-tip grizzly bear
+of the Rocky Mountains has a mental trait and a corresponding
+habit which seems to be unique in bear character. It is the habit
+of burying food for future use. Once I had a rare opportunity to
+observe this habit. It was in the Canadian Rockies of British
+Columbia, in the month of September(1905), while bears were very
+activism. John M. Phillips and I shot two large white goats,
+one of which rolled down a steep declivity and out upon the slide-
+rock, where it was skinned. The flensed body of the other was
+rolled over the edge of a cliff, and fell on a brushy soil-covered
+spot about on the same level as the remains of goat No. 1.
+
+The fresh goat remains were promptly discovered by a lusty young
+grizzly, which ate to satiety from Goat No. 1. With the remains
+of. Goat No. 2 the grizzly industriously proceeded to establish a
+cache of meat for future use.
+
+The goat carcass was dragged to a well chosen spot of seclusion
+on moss-covered earth. On the steep hillside a shallow hole was
+dug, the whole carcass rolled into it, and then upon it the bear
+piled nearly a wagon load of fresh earth, moss, and green plants
+that had been torn up by the roots. Over the highest point of the
+carcass the mass was twenty-four inches deep. On the ground the
+cache was elliptical in shape, and its outline measured about
+seven by nine feet. On the lower side it was four feet high, and
+on the upper side two feet. The cache was built around two larch
+saplings, as if to secure their support. On the uphill side of the
+cache the ground was torn up in a space shaped like a half moon,
+twenty-eight feet long by nineteen wide.
+
+I regard that cache as a very impressive exhibit of ursine
+thought, reasoning and conclusion. It showed more fore-thought
+and provision, and higher purpose in the conservation of food than
+some human beings ever display, even at their best. The plains
+Indians and the buffalo hunters were horribly wasteful and
+improvident. _The impulse of that grizzly was to make good use
+of every pound of that meat, and to conserve for the future._
+
+Survival of the Bears.--The bears of North America have survived
+thirty thousand years after the lions and the sabre-toothed tigers
+of La Brea perished utterly and disappeared. But there were bears
+also in those days, as the asphalt pits reveal. Now, why did not
+all the bears of North America share the fate of the lions and the
+tigers? It seems reasonable to answer that it was because the
+bears were wiser, more gifted in the art of self-preservation, and
+more resourceful in execution. In view of the omnivorous menu of
+bears, and their appalling dependence upon small things for food,
+it is to me marvelous that they now maintain themselves with such
+astounding success.
+
+A grizzly will dig a big and rocky hole three or four feet deep to
+get one tiny ground-squirrel, a tidbit so small that an adult
+grizzly could surely eat one hundred of them, like so many plums,
+at one sitting. A bear will feed on berries under such handicaps
+that one would not be surprised to see a bear starve to death in a
+berry-patch.
+
+But almost invariably the wild bear when killed is fairly well fed
+and prosperous; and I fancy that no one ever found a bear that had
+died of cold and exposure. The cunning of the black bear in self-
+preservation surpasses that of all other large mammal species of
+North America save the wolf, the white-tailed deer and the coyote.
+In the game of self-preservation I will back that quartet against
+all the other large land animals of North America.
+
+What Constitutes Comfortable Captivity. It is impossible for any
+man of good intelligence to work continuously with a wild animal
+without learning something of its thoughts and its temper.
+
+In our Zoological Park, day by day and hour by hour our people
+carry into practical effect their knowledge of the psychology of
+our mammals, birds and reptiles. In view of the work that we have
+done during the past twenty-one years of the Park's history, we do
+not need to apologize for claiming to know certain definite things
+about wild animal minds. It is my belief that nowhere in the world
+is there in one place so large an aggregation of dangerous beasts,
+birds and reptiles as ours. And yet accidents to our keepers from
+them have been exceedingly few, and all have been slight save
+four.
+
+Twenty-five years ago I endeavored to plan for the Zoological
+Society the most humane and satisfactory bear dens on earth.
+Fortunately we knew something about bears, both wild and captive.
+Never before have we written out the exact motif of those dens,
+but it is easily told. We endeavored to give each bear the
+following things:
+
+A very large and luxurious den, open to the sky, and practically
+on a level with the world;
+
+Perfect sanitation;
+
+A great level playground of smooth concrete;
+
+High, sloping rocks to climb upon when tired of the level floor;
+
+A swimming pool, always full and always clean;
+
+Openwork steel partitions between cages, to promote sociability
+and cheerfulness;
+
+Plenty of sunlight, but an adequate amount of shade;
+
+Dry and dark sleeping dens with wooden floors, and
+
+_Close-up views of all bears for all visitors._
+
+If there are anywhere in the wilds any bears as healthy, happy and
+as secure in their life tenure as ours, I do not know of them. The
+wild bear lives in hourly fear of being shot, and of going to bed
+hungry.
+
+The service of our bear dens is based upon our knowledge of bear
+psychology. We knew in the beginning that about 97 per cent of our
+bears would come to us as cubs, or at least when quite young, and
+we decided to take full advantage of that fact. All our bears save
+half a dozen all told, have been trained to permit the keepers of
+the dens to go into their cages, and to _make no fuss about
+it._ The bears know that when the keepers enter to do the
+morning housework, or at any other time for any other purpose,
+they must at once climb up to the gallery, above the sleeping
+dens, and stay there until the keepers retire. A bear who is slow
+about going up is sternly ordered to "Go on!" and if he shows any
+inclination to disobey, a heavy hickory pick-handle is thrown at
+him with no uncertain hand.
+
+Now, in grooming a herd of bears, a hickory pick-handle leaves no
+room for argument. If it hits, it hurts. If it does not hit a
+bear, it strikes the concrete floor or the rocks with a resound
+and a rebound that frightens the boldest bear almost as much as
+being hit. So the bear herd wisely climbs up to the first balcony
+and sits down to wait. No bear ever leaps down to attack a keeper.
+The distance and the jolt are not pleasant; and whenever a bear
+grows weary and essays to climb down, he is sternly ordered back.
+The keepers are forbidden to permit any familiarities on the part
+of their bears.
+
+All the bears, save one, that have come to us fully grown, and
+savage, have been managed by other methods, involving shifting
+cages.
+
+On two occasions only have any of our keepers been badly bitten in
+our bear dens. Both attacks were due to over-trustfulness of
+"petted" bears, and to direct disobedience of fixed orders.
+
+From the very beginning I laid down this law for our keepers, and
+have repeated it from year to year.
+
+"_Make no pets of animals large enough to become dangerous._
+Make every animal understand and admit day by day that you are
+absolute master, that it has got to obey, and that if it disobeys,
+or attacks you, _you will kill it!_"
+
+Familiarity with a dangerous wild animal usually breeds contempt
+and attack.
+
+Timidity is so fatal that none but courageous and determined men
+should be chosen, _or be permitted,_ to take care of
+dangerous animals.
+
+In every zoological garden heroic deeds are common; and the men
+take them all as coming in the day's work. Men in positions of
+control over zoological parks and gardens should recognize it as a
+solemn duty to provide good salaries for all men who take care of
+live wild mammals, birds and reptiles. _A man who is in daily
+danger of getting hurt should not every waking hour of his life be
+harried and worried by poverty in his home._
+
+Let me cite one case of real heroism in our bear dens, which went
+in with "the day's work," as many others have done. Keeper Fred
+Schlosser thought it would be safe to take our official
+photographer, Mr. E. R. Sanborn, into the den of a European brown
+bear mother, to get a close-up photograph of her and her cubs.
+Schlosser felt sure that Brownie was "all right," and that he
+could prevent any accident.
+
+But near the end of the work the mother bear drove her cubs into
+their sleeping den and then made a sudden, vicious and most
+unexpected attack upon Keeper Schlosser. She rushed him, knocked
+him down, seized him by his thigh, bit him severely, and then
+actually began _to drag him_ to the door of her sleeping den!
+(Just _why_ she did this I cannot explain!)
+
+Heroically ignoring the great risk to himself, and thinking of
+nothing but saving Schlosser, Mr. Sanborn seized the club that had
+fallen from the keeper's hand when he fell, rushed up to the
+enraged bear and beat her over the head so savagely and so
+skilfully that she was glad to let go of her victim and retreat
+into her den. Then Mr. Sanborn seized Schlosser, dragged him away
+from the den, and stood guard over him until help came.
+
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+MENTAL TRAITS OF A FEW RUMINANTS
+
+
+When we wish to cover with a single word the hoofed and horned
+"big game" of the world, we say Ruminants. That easy and
+comprehensive name embraces (1) the Bison and Wild Cattle, (2) the
+Sheep, Goats, Ibexes and Markhors, (3) the Deer Family and (4) the
+Antelope Family. These groups must be considered separately,
+because the variations in mind and temperament are quite well
+marked; but beyond wisdom in self-preservation, I do not regard
+the intelligence of wild ruminants as being really great.
+
+Intellectually the ruminants are not as high as the apes and
+monkeys, bears, wolves, foxes and dogs, the domestic horses and
+the elephants. They are handicapped by feet that are good for
+locomotion and defense, but otherwise are almost as helpless as so
+many jointed sticks. This condition closes to the ruminants the
+possibility of a long program of activities which the ruminant
+brain might otherwise develop. The ruminant hoof and leg is well
+designed for swift and rough travel, for battles with distance,
+snow, ice, mud and flood, and for a certain amount of fighting,
+but they are inept for the higher manifestations of brain power.
+
+Because of this unfortunate condition, the study of ruminants in
+captivity does not yield a great crop of results. The free wild
+animals are far better subjects, and it is from them that we have
+derived our best knowledge of ruminant thoughts and ways. It is
+not possible, however, to set forth here any more than a limited
+number of representative species.
+
+THE BISON AND WILD CATTLE. The American Bison.--Through the age-
+long habit of the American bison to live in large herds, and to
+feel, generation after generation, the sense of personal security
+that great numbers usually impart, the bison early acquired the
+reputation of being a stolid or even a stupid animal. Particularly
+was this the case in the days of the greatest bison destruction,
+when a still-hunter could get "a stand" on a bunch of buffaloes
+quietly grazing at the edge of the great mass, and slowly and
+surely shoot down each animal that attempted to lead that group
+away from the sound of his rifle.
+
+During that fatal period the state of the buffalo mind was nothing
+less than a tragedy. "The bunch" would hear a report two hundred
+yards away, they would see a grazing cow suddenly and mysteriously
+fall, struggle, kick the air, and presently lie still. The
+individuals nearest dully wondered what it was all about. Those
+farthest away looked once only, and went on grazing. If an
+experienced old cow grew suspicious and wary, and quietly set out
+to walk away from those mysterious noises, "bang!" said the
+Mystery once more, and she would be the one to fall. On this
+murderous plan, a lucky and experienced hunter could kill from
+twenty to sixty head of buffaloes, mostly cows, on a space of
+three or four acres. The fatal trouble was that each buffalo felt
+that the presence of a hundred or a thousand others feeding close
+by was an insurance of _security_ to the individual, and so
+there was no stampede.
+
+But after all, the bison is not so big a fool as he looks. He can
+think; and he can _learn._
+
+In 1886, when we were about to set out for Montana to try to find
+a few wild buffaloes for the National Museum, before the reckless
+cowboys could find, kill and waste absolutely the last one, a
+hilarious friend said:
+
+"Pshaw! You don't need to take any rifles! Just get a rusty old
+revolver, mount a good, sensible horse, ride right up alongside
+the lumbering old beasts, and shoot them down at arm's length."
+We went; but not armed with "a rusty old revolver." We found a few
+buffaloes, but ye gods! How changed they were from the old days!
+Although only two short years had elapsed since the terminal
+slaughter of the hundreds of thousands whose white skeletons then
+thickly dotted the Missouri-Yellowstone divide, _they had
+learned fear of man,_ and also how to preserve themselves from
+that dangerous wild beast. They sought the remotest bad lands,
+they hid in low grounds, they watched sharply during every
+daylight hour, and whenever a man on horseback was sighted they
+were off like a bunch of racers, for a long and frantic run
+straight away from the trouble-maker. Even at a distance of two
+miles, or as far as they could see a man, they would run from
+him,--not one mile, or two, but five miles, or seven or eight
+miles, to another wild and rugged hiding-place.
+
+To kill the buffalo specimens that we needed, three cowboys and
+the writer worked hard for nearly three months, and it was all
+that we could do to outwit those man-scared bison, and to get near
+enough to them to kill what we required. Many a time, when weary
+from a long chase, I thought with bitter scorn of my friend with
+the rusty-old-revolver in his mind. No deer, mountain sheep,
+tiger, bears nor elephants,--all of which I have pursued (and
+sometimes overtaken!)--were ever more wary or keen in self-
+preservation than those bison who _at last_ had broken out
+from under the fatal spell of herd security. I am really glad that
+this strange turn of Fortune's wheel gave me the knowledge of the
+true scope of the buffalo mind before the last chance had passed.
+
+What did a wild buffalo do when he found himself with a broken
+leg, and unable to travel, but otherwise sound? Did he go limping
+about over the landscape, to attract enemies from afar, and be
+quickly shot by a man or torn to pieces by wolves? Not he! With
+the keen intelligence of the wounded wild ruminant, he chose the
+line of least resistance, and on three legs fled downhill. He went
+on down, and kept going, until he reached the bottom of the
+biggest and most tortuous coulee in his neighborhood. And then
+what? Instead of coming to rest in a reposeful little valley a
+hundred feet wide, he chose the most rugged branch he could find,
+the one with the steepest and highest banks, and up that dry bed,
+with many a twist and turn, he painfully limped his way. At last
+he found himself in a snug and safe ditch, precisely like a front
+line trench seven feet wide, with perpendicular walls and zig-
+zagging so persistently that the de'il himself could not find him
+save by following him up to close quarters, and landing upon his
+horns. There, without food or water, the wounded animal would
+stand for many days,--in fact, until hunger would force him back
+to the valley's crop of grass. His wild remedy was to _keep
+still,_ and give that broken leg its chance to knit and grow
+strong.
+
+I have seen in buffalo skeletons healed bone fractures that filled
+us with wonder. One case that we shot was a big and heavy bull
+whose hip socket had been utterly smashed, femur head and all, by
+a heavy rifle ball; but the bull had escaped in spite of his
+wound, and he had nursed it until it had healed in _good working
+order._ We can testify that he could run as well as any of the
+bisons in his bunch.
+
+Of course young bisons can be tamed, and to a certain extent
+educated. "Buffalo" Jones broke a pair of two-year-old bulls to
+work under a yoke, and pull a light wagon. He tried them with
+bridles and bits, but the buffaloes refused to work with them.
+With tight-fitting halters, and the exercise of much-muscle, he
+was able for a time to make them "gee" and "haw." But not for
+long. When they outgrew his ability in free-hand drawing, he
+rigged an upright windlass on each side of his wagon-box, and
+firmly attached a line to each. When the team was desired to
+"gee," he deftly wound up the right line on its windlass, and vice
+versa for "haw."
+
+But even this did not last a great while. The motor control was
+more tentative than absolute. Once while driving beside a creek on
+a hot and thirsty day, the super-heated buffaloes suddenly espied
+the water, twenty feet or so below the road. Without having been
+bidden they turned toward it, and the windlass failed to stop
+them. Over the cut bank they went, wagon, man and buffalo bulls,
+"in one red burial blent." Although they secured their drink,
+their reputation as draught oxen was shattered beyond repair, and
+they were cashiered the service.
+
+Elsewhere I have spoken of the bison's temper and temperament.
+
+THE WILD SHEEP.--It takes most newly-captured adult mountain sheep
+about six months in palatial zoo quarters to get the idea out of
+their heads that every man who comes near them, even including the
+man who feeds and waters them, is going to kill them, and that
+they must rush wildly to and fro before it occurs. But there are
+exceptions.
+
+At the same time, wild herds soon learn the large difference
+between slaughter and protection, and thereafter accept man's hay
+and salt with dignity and persistence. The fine big-horn
+photographs that have been taken of _wild_ sheep herds on
+public highways just outside of Banff, Alberta, tell their own
+story more eloquently than words can do. The photograph of wild
+sheep, after only twenty-seven years of protection, feeding in
+herds in the main street of Ouray, Colorado, is an object lesson
+never to be forgotten by any student of wild animal psychology.
+And can any such student look upon such a picture and say that
+those animals have not thought to some purpose upon the important
+question of danger and safety to sheep?
+
+Is there anyone left who still believes the ancient and bizarre
+legend that mountain sheep rams jump off cliffs and alight upon
+their horns? I think not. People now know enough about anatomy,
+and the mental traits of wild sheep, to know that nothing of that
+kind ever occurred save by a dreadful accident, followed by the
+death of the sheep. No spinal column was ever made by Nature or
+developed by man that could endure without breaking a headforemost
+fall from the top of a cliff to the slide-rock bottom thereof.
+
+In Colorado, in May 1907, the late Judge D. C. Beaman of Denver
+saw a big-horn ram which was pursued by dogs to the precipitous
+end of a mountain ridge, take a leap for life into space from top
+to bottom. The distance straight down was "between twenty and
+twenty-five feet." The ram went down absolutely upright, with his
+head fully erect, and his feet well apart. He landed on the slide
+rock on his feet, broke no bones, promptly recovered himself and
+dashed away to safety. Judge Beaman declared that "the dogs were
+afraid to approach even as near as the edge of the cliff at the
+point from which the sheep leaped off."
+
+John Muir held the opinion that the legend of horn-landing sheep
+was born of the wild descent of frightened sheep down rocks so
+steep that they _seemed_ perpendicular but were not, and the
+sheep, after touching here and there in the wild pitch sometimes
+landed in a heap at the bottom,--quite against their will. To me
+this has always seemed a reasonable explanation.
+
+The big-horn sheep has one mental trait that its host of ardent
+admirers little suspect. It does not like pinnacle rocks, nor
+narrow ledges across perpendicular cliffs, nor dangerous climbing.
+It does not "leap from crag to crag," either up, down or across.
+Go where you will in sheep hunting, nine times out of ten you will
+find your game on perfectly safe ground, from which there is very
+little danger of falling.
+
+In spirit and purpose the big-horns are great pioneers and
+explorers. They always want to see what is on the other side of
+the range. They will sight a range of far distant desert
+mountains, and to see what is there will travel by night across
+ten or twenty miles of level desert to find out.
+
+It was in the Pinacate Mountains of northwestern Mexico, on the
+eastern shore of the head of the Gulf of California, that we made
+our most interesting observations on wild big-horn sheep. On those
+black and blasted peaks and plains of lava, where nature was
+working hard to replant with desert vegetation a vast volcanic
+area, we found herds of short-haired, undersized big-horn sheep,
+struggling to hold their own against terrific heat, short food and
+long thirst. It is a burning shame that since our discovery of
+those sheep hunters of a dozen different kinds have almost
+exterminated them.
+
+We saw one band of seventeen sheep, close to Pinacate Peak, all so
+utterly ignorant of the ways of men that they practically refused
+to be frightened at our presence and our silent guns. We watched
+them a long time, forgetful of the flight of time. They were not
+shrewdly suspicious of danger. They fed, and frolicked, and dozed,
+as much engrossed in their indolence as if the world contained no
+dangers for them.
+
+One day Mr. John M. Phillips and I shot two rams, for the Carnegie
+Museum; and the next morning I had the most remarkable lesson that
+I ever learned in mountain sheep psychology.
+
+Early on that November morning Mr. Jeff Milton and I left our
+chilly lair in a lava ravine, and most foolishly left both our
+rifles at our camp. Hobbling along on foot we led a pack mule over
+half a mile of rough and terrible lava to a dead sheep. There we
+quickly skinned the animal, packed the skin and a horned head upon
+the upper deck of our mule, and started back to camp, leading our
+assistant. Half way back we looked westward across an eighth of a
+mile of rough, black lava, and saw standing on a low point a fine
+big-horn ram. He stood in a statuesque attitude, facing us, and
+fixedly gazing at us. He was trying to make out what we were, and
+to determine why a perfectly good pair of sheep horns should grow
+out of the back of a sorrel mule! Ethically he had a right to be
+puzzled.
+
+Mr. Milton and I were greatly annoyed by the absence of our
+rifles; and he proposed that we should leave the mule where he
+stood, go back to our camp, get our guns, and kill the sheep. Now,
+even then I was quite well up on the subject of curiosity in wild
+animals, and I knew to a minute what to count upon as the standing
+period of sheep, goat or deer. As gently as possible I informed
+Milton that _no_ sheep would ever stand and look at a sorrel
+mule for the length of time it would take us to foot it over that
+lava to camp, and return.
+
+But my companion was optimistic, and even skeptical.
+
+"Maybe he will, now!" he persisted. "Let's try it. I think he may
+wait for us."
+
+Much against my judgment, and feeling secretly rebellious at the
+folly of it all, I agreed to his plan,--solely to be "a good
+sport," and to play his game. But _I_ knew that the effort
+would be futile, as well as exhausting. Jeff tied the mule, for
+the sheep to contemplate.
+
+We went and got those rifles. We were gone fully twenty minutes.
+When we again reached the habitat of the mule, _that ram was
+still there!_ Apparently he had not moved a muscle, nor stirred
+a foot, nor even batted an eye. Talk about curiosity in a wild
+animal! He was a living statue of it.
+
+He continued to hold his pose on his lava point while we stalked
+him under cover of a hillock of lava, and shot him,--almost half
+an hour after we first saw him. He had been overwhelmingly puzzled
+by the uncanny sight of a pair of curling horns like his own,
+growing out of the back of a long-eared sorrel mule which he felt
+had no zoological right to wear them. He did his level best to
+think it out; he became a museum specimen in consequence, and he
+has gone down in history as the Curiosity Ram.
+
+Mental Attitude of Captured Big-Horn Sheep. In 1906 an
+enterprising and irrepressible young man named Will Frakes took
+the idea into his head that he must catch some mountain sheep
+alive, and do it alone and single-handed. Presently he located a
+few _Ovis nelsoni_ in the Avawatz Mountains near Death
+Valley, California. Finding a water hole to which mountain sheep
+occasionally came at night to drink, he set steel traps around it.
+One by one he caught five sheep of various ages, but chiefly
+adults. The story of this interesting performance is told in
+_Outdoor Life_ magazine for March, April and May, 1907.
+
+I am interested in the mental processes of those sheep as they
+came in close contact with man, and were compelled by force of
+circumstances to accept captivity. Knowing, as all animal men do,
+the fierce resistance usually made by adult animals to the
+transition from freedom to captivity, I was prepared to read that
+those nervous and fearsome adult sheep fought day by day until
+they died.
+
+But not so. Those sheep showed clear perceptive faculties and good
+judgment. They were quick to learn that they were conquered, and
+with amazing resignation they accepted the new life and its
+strange conditions. In describing the chase on foot in thick
+darkness of a big old male mountain sheep with a steel trap fast
+on his foot, Mr. Frakes says:
+
+"A sheep's token of surrender is to lie down and lie still. Once
+he 'possums, no matter what you do, or how badly you may hurt him,
+he will never flinch. And when this sheep ("Old Stonewall") was
+thrown down by the trap, he evidently thought that he was
+captured, and lay still for a few minutes before he found out the
+difference, which gave me time to come up with him.... So I went
+to camp, got a trap clamp and some sacks, made a kind of sled and
+dragged him in. It was just midnight when I got him tied down, and
+just sun-up when I got to camp with him. I fixed him up the best
+I could, stood him up beside the other big-horn and took their
+pictures. He looked so "rough and ready" that I named him "Old
+Stonewall." But for all his proud, defiant bearing he has always
+been a good sheep, _and never tried to fight me._ Still he
+can hit quick and hard when he wants to, and I have to keep him
+tied up all the time to keep him from killing the other bucks."
+
+Now, I know not what conclusion others will draw from the above
+clear and straightforward recital, but to me it established in
+_Ovis nelsoni_ a reputation for quick thinking, original
+reasoning and sound conclusions. In an incredibly short period
+those animals came up to the status of tame animals. The five
+sheep caught by Mr. Frakes were suddenly confronted by new
+conditions, such as their ancestors had never even dreamed of
+meeting; and _all of them reacted in the same way._ That was
+more than "animal behavior." It was Thought, and Reason!
+
+THE GOATS. White Mountain Goat.--I never have had any opportunity
+to study at length, in the wilds, the mental traits of the
+markhors, ibexes, gorals or serows. I have however, enjoyed rare
+opportunities with the white Rocky Mountain goat, on the summits
+of the Canadian Rockies as well as in captivity.
+
+Where we were, on the Elk River Mountains of East Kootenay, the
+goats had little fear of man. They did not know that we were in
+the group of the world's most savage predatory animals, and we
+puzzled them. Fourteen of them once leisurely looked down upon us
+from the edge of a cliff, and silently studied us for a quarter of
+an hour. An hour later three of them ran through our camp. One
+morning an old billy calmly lay down to rest himself on the
+mountain side about 300 feet above our tents. At last, however, he
+became uneasy, and moved away.
+
+This goat is not a timid and fearsome soul, ready to go into a
+panic in the presence of danger. The old billy believes that the
+best defense is a vigorous offense. On the spot where Cranbrook,
+B. C., now stands, an old billy was caught unawares on an open
+plain and surrounded by Indians, dogs and horses. In the battle
+that ensued he so nearly whipped the entire outfit that a squaw
+rushed wildly to the rescue with a loaded rifle, to enable the Red
+army to win against the one lone goat.
+
+In those mountains the white goat, grizzly bear, mountain sheep,
+mule deer and elk all live together, in perfect liaison, and never
+but once have I heard of the goat getting into a fight with a
+joint-tenant species. A large silver-tip grizzly rashly attacked a
+full-grown billy, and managed to inflict upon him mortal injuries.
+Before he fell, however, the goat countered by driving his little
+skewer-sharp black horns into the vitals of the grizzly with such
+judgment and precision that the dead grizzly was found by Mr. A.
+B. Fenwick quite near the dead goat.
+
+We know that the mountain goat is a good reasoner in certain life-
+or-death matters affecting himself.
+
+He knows no such thing as becoming panic-stricken from surprise or
+fear. An animal that looks death in the face every hour from
+sunrise until sunset is not to be upset by trifles. We have seen
+that if a dog and several men corner a goat on a precipice ledge,
+and hem him in so that there is no avenue of escape, he does not
+grow frantic, as any deer or most sheep would do, and plunge off
+into space to certain death. Not he. He stands quite still, glares
+indignantly upon his enemies, shakes his head, occasionally grits
+his teeth or stamps a foot, but otherwise waits. His attitude and
+his actions say:
+
+"Well, it is your move. What are you going to do next?"
+
+Most captive ruminants struggle frantically when put into crates
+for shipment. White goats very rarely do so. They recognize the
+inevitable, and accept it with resignation. Captive antelopes and
+deer often kill themselves by dashing madly against wire fences,
+but I never knew a white goat to injure itself on a fence. Many a
+wild animal has died from fighting its shipping crate; but no wild
+goat ever did so. A white goat will walk up a forty-five degree
+plank to the roof of his house, climb all over it, and joyously
+perch on the peak; but no mountain sheep or deer of ours ever did
+so. _They are afraid!_ Only the Himalayan tahr equals the
+white goat in climbing in captivity, and it will climb into the
+lower branches of an oak tree, just for fun.
+
+Of all the ruminant animals I know intimately, the white mountain
+goat is the philosopher-in-chief. Were it not so, how would it be
+possible for him to live and thrive, and attain happiness, on the
+savage and fearsome summits that form his chosen home? We
+must bear in mind that the big-horn does not dare to risk
+the haunts and trails of his white rivals. Hear the Cragmaster of
+the Rockies:
+
+[Illustration with caption: THE STEADY-NERVED AND COURAGEOUS
+MOUNTAIN GOAT He refused to be stampeded off his ledge by men or
+dog. Photographed at eight feet by John M. Phillips (1905).]
+
+"On dizzy ledge of mountain wall, above the timber-line I
+hear the riven slide-rock fall toward the stunted pine. Upon
+the paths I tread secure no foot dares follow me, For I am
+master of the crags, and march above the scree."
+
+In other chapters I have referred to the temperament and logic of
+this animal, the bravest mountaineer of all America.
+
+THE DEER.--In nervous energy the species of the Deer Family vary
+all the way from the nervous and hysterical barasingha to the
+sensible and steady American elk that can successfully be driven
+in harness like a horse. As I look over the deer of all nations I
+am bound to award the palm for sound common-sense and reasoning
+power to the elk.
+
+A foolishly nervous deer seldom takes time to display high
+intelligence. Naturally we dislike men, women, children or wild
+animals who are always ready to make fools of themselves,
+stampede, and disfigure the landscape.
+
+The Axis Deer is quietly sensible,--so long as there is no
+catching to be done. Try to catch one, and the whole herd goes off
+like a bomb. Many other species are similar. No wild deer could
+act more absurdly than does the axis, the barasingha and fallow,
+even after generations have been bred in captivity.
+
+The Malay Sambar Deer of the Zoological Park have one droll trait.
+The adult bucks bully and browbeat the does, in a rather mild way,
+so long as their own antlers are on their heads. But when those
+antlers take their annual drop, "O, times! O, manners! What a
+change!" The does do not lose a day in flying at them, and taking
+revenge for past tyranny. They strike the hornless bucks with
+their front feet, they butt them, and they bite out of them
+mouthfuls of hair. The bucks do not seem, to know that they can
+fight without their antlers, and so the tables are completely
+turned. This continues until the new horns grow out, the velvet
+dries and is rubbed off,--and then quickly the tables are turned
+again.
+
+No other deer species of my personal acquaintance has ever
+equalled the American elk of Wyoming in recognizing man's
+protection and accepting his help in evil times. It is not only a
+few wise ones, or a few half-domestic bands, but vast wild herds
+of thousands that every winter rush to secure man's hay in the
+Jackson Hole country, south of the Yellowstone Park. No matter how
+shy they _all_ are in the October hunting season, in the bad
+days of January and February they know that the annual armistice
+is on, and it means hay for them instead of bullets. They swarm in
+the level Jackson Valley, around S. N. Leek's famous ranch and
+others, until you can see a square mile of solid gray-yellow
+living elk bodies. Mr. Leek once caught about 2,500 head in one
+photograph, all hungry. They crowd around the hay sleds like
+hungry horses. In their greatest hunger they attack the ranchmen's
+haystacks, just as far as the stout and high log fences will
+permit them to go, and many a kind-hearted ranchman has robbed his
+own haystacks to save the lives of starving and despairing elk.
+
+The Yellowstone Park elk know the annual shooting and feeding
+seasons just as thoroughly as do the men of Jackson Hole.
+
+Once there was a bold and hardy western man who trained a bunch of
+elk to dive from a forty-foot high platform into a pool of water.
+I say that he "trained" them, because it really was that. The
+animals quickly learned that the plunge did nothing more than to
+shock and wet them, and so they submitted to the part they had to
+play, with commendable resignation. Some deer would have fought
+the program every step of the way, and soon worn themselves out;
+but elk, and also horses, learn that the diving performance is all
+in the day's work; which to me seems like good logic. A few
+persons believe that such performances are cruel to the animals
+concerned, but the diving alone is not necessarily so.
+
+Some deer have far too much curiosity, too much desire to know
+"What is that?" and "What is it all about?" The startled mule deer
+leaps out, jumps a hundred feet or more at a great pace, then
+foolishly stops and looks back, to gratify his curiosity. That is
+the hunter's chance; and that fatal desire for accurate
+information has been an important contributory cause to the
+extermination of the mule deer, or Rocky Mountain "black-tail,"
+throughout large areas. In the Yellowstone Park the once-wild
+herds of mule deer have grown so tame under thirty years of
+protection that they completely overrun the parade ground, the
+officers' quarters, and even enter porches and kitchens for food.
+
+Several authors have remarked upon the habits of the elephant,
+llama and guanaco in returning to the same spot; and this reminds
+me of a coincidence in my experience that few persons will believe
+when I relate it.
+
+In the wild and weird bad-lands of Hell Creek, Montana, I once
+went out deer hunting in company with the original old hermit
+wolf-hunter of that region, named Max Sieber. With deep feeling
+Max told me of a remarkable miss that he had made the previous
+year in firing at a fine mule deer buck from the top of a small
+butte; for which I gave him my sympathy.
+
+In the course of our morning's tramp through the very bad-lands
+that were once the ancestral home of the giant carnivorous
+dinosaur, yclept _Tyrannosaurus rex,_ we won our way to the
+foot of a long naked butte. Then Sieber said, very kindly:
+
+"If you will climb with me up to the top of this butte I will show
+you where I missed that big buck."
+
+It was not an alluring proposition, and I thought things that I
+did not speak. However, being an Easy Mark, I said cheerfully,
+"All right, Max. Go ahead and show me."
+
+We toiled up to a much-too-distant point on the rounded summit,
+and as Max slowed up and peered down the farther side, he pointed
+and began to speak.
+
+"He was standing right down there on that little patch of bare--
+why!" he exclaimed. "_There's a dee-er there now!_ But it's a
+doe! Get down! Get down!" and he crouched. Then I woke up and
+became interested.
+
+"It is _not_ a doe, Max. I see horns!"--Bang!
+
+And in another five seconds a fine buck lay dead on the very spot
+where Sieber's loved and lost buck had stood one year previously.
+But that was only an unbelievable coincidence,--unbelievable to
+all save old Max.
+
+The natural impulse of the mule deer of those bad-lands when
+flushed by a hunter is to _run over a ridge,_ and escape over
+the top; but that is bad judgement and often proves fatal. It
+would be wiser for them to run _down,_ to the bottoms of
+those gashed and tortuous gullies, and escape by zig-zagging along
+the dry stream beds.
+
+The White-Tailed, or Virginia Deer is the wisest member of the
+Deer Family in North America, and it will be our last big-game
+species to become extinct. It has reduced self-preservation to an
+exact science.
+
+In areas of absolute protection it becomes very bold, and breeds
+rapidly. Around our bungalow in the wilds of Putman County, New
+York, the deer come and stamp under our windows, tramp through our
+garden, feed in broad daylight with our neighbor's cattle, and
+jauntily jump across the roads almost anywhere. They are beautiful
+objects, in those wild wooded landscapes of lake and hill.
+
+But in the Adirondacks, what a change! If you are keen you may see
+a few deer in the closed season, but to see in the hunting season
+a buck with good horns you must be a real hunter. As a skulker and
+hider, and a detector of hunters, I know no deer equal to the
+white-tail. In making a safe get-away when found, I will back a
+buck of this species against all other deer on earth. He has no
+fatal curiosity. He will not halt and pose for a bullet in order
+to have a look at you. What the startled buck wants is more space
+and more green bushes between the Man and himself.
+
+The Moose is a weird-looking and uncanny monster, but he knows one
+line of strategy that is startling in its logic. Often when a bull
+moose is fleeing from a long stern chase,--always through wooded
+country,--he will turn aside, swing a wide semicircle backward,
+and then lie down for a rest close up to leeward of his trail.
+There he lies motionless and waits for man-made noises, or man
+scent; and when he senses either sign of his pursuer, he silently
+moves away in a new direction.
+
+The Antelopes of the Old World. The antelopes, gazelles, gnus and
+hartebeests of Africa and Asia almost without exception live in
+herds, some of them very large. Owing to this fact their minds are
+as little developed, individually, as the minds of herd animals
+generally are. The herd animal, relying as it does upon its
+leaders, and the security that large numbers always seem to
+afford, is a creature of few independent ideas. It is not like the
+deer, elk, sheep or goat that has learned things in the hard
+school of solitude, danger and adversity, with no one on whom to
+rely for safety save itself. The basic intelligence of the average
+herd animal can be summed up in one line:
+
+"Post your sentinels, then follow your leader."
+
+Judging from what hunters in Africa have told me, the hunting of
+most kinds of African antelopes is rather easy and quiet long-
+range rifle work. In comparison with any sheep, goat, ibex,
+markhor and even deer hunting, it must be rather mild sport. A
+level grassy plain with more or less bushes and small trees for
+use in stalking is a tame scenario beside mountains and heavy
+forests, and it seems to me that this sameness and tameness of
+habitat naturally fails to stimulate the mental development of the
+wild habitants. In captivity, excepting the keen kongoni, or
+Coke hartebeest, and a few others, the old-world antelopes are
+mentally rather dull animals. They seem to have few thoughts, and
+seldom use what they have; but when attacked or wounded the roan
+antelope is hard to finish. In captivity their chief exercise
+consists in rubbing and wearing down their horns on the iron bars
+of their indoor cages, but I must give one of our brindled gnus
+extra credit for the enterprise and thoroughness that he displayed
+in wrecking a powerfully-built water-trough, composed of concrete
+and porcelain. The job was as well done as if it had been the work
+of a big-horn ram showing off. But that was the only exhibition of
+its kind by an African antelope.
+
+The Alleged "Charge" of the Rhinoceros. For half a century African
+hunters wrote of the assaults of African rhinoceroses on caravans
+and hunting parties; and those accounts actually established for
+that animal a reputation for pugnacity. Of late years, however,
+the evil intentions of the rhinoceros have been questioned by
+several hunters. Finally Col. Theodore Roosevelt firmly declared
+his belief that the usual supposed "charge" of the rhinoceros is
+nothing more nor less than a movement to draw nearer to the
+strange man-object, on account of naturally poor vision, to see
+what men look like. In fact, I think that most American sportsmen
+who have hunted in Africa now share that view, and credit the
+rhino with very rarely running at a hunter or a party in order to
+do damage.
+
+The Okapi, of Central Africa, inhabits dense jungles of arboreal
+vegetation and they are so expert in detecting the presence of man
+and in escaping from him that thus far, so far as we are aware, no
+white man has ever shot one! The native hunters take them only in
+pitfalls or in nooses. Mr. Herbert Lang, of the American Museum of
+Natural History, diligently hunted the okapi, with native aid, but
+in spite of all his skill in woodcraft the cunning of the okapi
+was so great, and the brushy woods were so great a handicap to
+him, that he never shot even one specimen.
+
+In skill in self-preservation the African bongo antelope seems to
+be a strong rival of the okapi, but it has been killed by a few
+white men, of whom Captain Kermit Roosevelt is one.
+
+
+
+
+XIV
+
+MENTAL TRAITS OF A FEW RODENTS
+
+
+Out of the vast mass of the great order of the gnawing animals of
+the world it is possible here to consider only half a dozen types.
+However, these will serve to blaze a trail into the midst of the
+grand army.
+
+The White-Footed Mouse, or Deer Mouse. On the wind-swept divides
+and coulees of the short-grass region of what once were the
+Buffalo Plains of Montana, only the boldest and most resourceful
+wild mice can survive. There in 1886 we found a white-footed mouse
+species (_Peromyscus leucopus_), nesting in the brain
+cavities of bleaching buffalo skulls, on divides as bare and
+smooth as golf links.
+
+In 1902, while hunting mule deer with Laton A. Huffman in the
+wildest and most picturesque bad-lands of central Montana, we
+pitched our tent near the upper waterhole of Hell Creek.
+[Footnote: A few months later, acting upon the information of our
+fossil discoveries that we conveyed to Professor Henry Fairfield
+Osborn, an expedition from the American Museum of Natural History
+ushered into the scientific world the now famous Hell Creek fossil
+bed, and found, about five hundred feet from the ashes of our
+camp-fire, the remains of _Tyrannosaurus rex._]For the
+benefit of our camp-fire, our cook proceeded to hitch his rope
+around a dry cottonwood log and snake it close up to our tent.
+When it was cut up, we found snugly housed in the hollow, a nest,
+made chiefly of feathers, containing five white-footed mice.
+Packed close against the nest was a pint and a half of fine, clean
+seed, like radish seed, from some weed of the Pulse Family. While
+the food-store was being examined, and finally deposited in a pile
+upon the bare ground near the tent door, the five mice escaped
+into the sage-brush. Near by stood an old-fashioned buggy, which
+now becomes a valuable piece of stage property.
+
+The next morning, when Mr. Huffman lifted the cushion of his
+buggy-seat, and opened the top of the shallow box underneath, the
+five mice, with their heads close together in a droll-looking
+group, looked out at him in surprise and curiosity, and at first
+without attempting to run away. But very soon it became our turn
+to be surprised.
+
+We found that these industrious little creatures had gathered up
+every particle of their nest, and every seed of their winter
+store, and carried all of it up into the seat of that buggy! The
+nest had been carefully re-made, and the seed placed close by, as
+before. Considering the number of journeys that must have been
+necessary to carry all those materials over the ground, plus a
+climb up to the buggy seat, the industry and agility of the mice
+were amazing.
+
+By way of experiment, we again removed the nest, and while the
+mice once more took to the sage-brush, we collected all the seed,
+and poured it in a pile upon the ground, as before. During the
+following night, those indomitable little creatures _again_
+carried nest and seed back into the buggy seat, just as before!
+Then we gathered up the entire family of mice with their nest and
+seed, and transported them to New York.
+
+Now, the reasoning of those wonderful little creatures, in the
+face of new conditions, was perfectly obvious, (1) Finding
+themselves suddenly deprived of their winter home and store of
+food, (2) they scattered and fled for personal safety into the
+tall grass and sage-brush. (3) At night they assembled for a
+council at the ruins of their domicile and granary. (4) They
+decided that they must in all haste find a new home, close by,
+because (5) at all hazards their store of food must be saved, to
+avert starvation. (6) They explored the region around the tent and
+camp-fire, and (7) finally, as a last resort, they ventured to
+climb up the thills of the buggy. (8) After a full exploration of
+it they found that the box under the seat afforded the best winter
+shelter they had found. (9) At once they decided that it would do,
+and without a moment's delay or hesitation the whole party of five
+set to work carrying those seeds up the thills--a fearsome venture
+for a mouse--and (10) there before daybreak they deposited the
+entire lot of seeds. (11) Finding that a little time remained,
+they carried up the whole of their nest materials, made up the
+nest anew, and settled down within it for better or for worse.
+
+Now, this is no effort of our imagination. It is a story of actual
+facts, all of which can be proven by three competent witnesses.
+How many human beings similarly dispossessed and robbed of home
+and stores, act with the same cool judgment, celerity and
+precision that those five tiny creatures then and there displayed?
+
+The Wood Rat, Pack Rat, or Trading Rat. Although I have met this
+wonderful creature (_Neotoma_) in various places on its
+native soil, I will quote from another and perfectly reliable
+observer a sample narrative of its startling mental traits. At Oak
+Lodge, east coast of Florida, we lived for a time in the home of
+a pair of pack rats whose eccentric work was described to me by Mrs.
+C. F. Latham, as follows:
+
+First they carried a lot of watermelon seeds from the ground floor
+upstairs, and hid them under a pillow on a bed. Then they took
+from the kitchen a tablespoonful of cucumber seeds and hid them in
+the pocket of a vest that hung upstairs on a nail. In one night
+they removed from box number one, eighty five pieces of bee-hive
+furniture, and hid them in another box. On the following night
+they deposited in box number one about two quarts of corn and
+oats.
+
+Western frontiersmen and others who live in the land of the pack
+rat relate stories innumerable of the absurd but industrious
+doings of these eccentric creatures. The ways of the pack rat are
+so erratic that I find it impossible to figure out by any rules
+known to me the workings of their minds. Strange to say, they are
+not fiends and devils of malice and destruction like the brown rat
+of civilization, and on the whole it seems that the destruction of
+valuable property is not by any means a part of their plan. They
+have a passion for moving things. Their vagaries seem to be due
+chiefly to caprice, and an overwhelming desire to keep exceedingly
+busy. I think that the animal psychologists have lost much by so
+completely ignoring these brain-busy animals, and I hope that in
+the future they will receive the attention they deserve. Why
+experiment with stupid and nerveless white rats when pack rats are
+so cheap?
+
+It was in the wonderland that on the map is labeled "Arizona"
+that I met some astonishing evidences of the defensive reasoning
+power of the pack rat. In the Sonoran Desert, where for arid
+reasons the clumps of creosote bushes and salt bushes stand from
+four to six feet apart, the bare level ground between clumps
+affords smooth and easy hunting-grounds for coyotes, foxes and
+badgers, saying nothing of the hawks and owls.
+
+Now, a burrow in sandy ground is often a poor fortress; and the
+dropping spine-clad joints of the tree choyas long ago suggested
+better defenses. In many places we saw the entrance of pack rat
+burrows defended by two bushels of spiny choya joints and sticks
+arranged in a compact mound-like mass. In view of the virtue in
+those deadly spines, any predatory mammal or bird would hesitate
+long before tackling a bushel of solid joints to dig through it to
+the mouth of a burrow.
+
+Did those little animals collect and place those joints because of
+their defensive stickers,--with deliberate forethought and
+intention? Let us see.
+
+In the grounds of the Desert Botanical Laboratory, in November
+1907, we found the answer to this question, so plainly spread
+before us that even the dullest man can not ignore it, nor the
+most skeptical dispute it. We found some pack rat runways and
+burrow entrances so elaborately laid out and so well defended by
+choya joints that we may well call the ensemble a fortress. On
+the spot I made a very good map of it, which is presented on page
+164. [Footnote: From "Camp-Fires on Desert and Lava" (Scribner's)
+page 304.] The animal that made it was the White-Throated Pack Rat
+(_Neotoma albigula_). The fortress consisted of several
+burrow entrances, the roads leading to which were defended by
+carefully constructed barriers of cactus joints full of spines.
+
+The habitants had chosen to locate their fortress between a large
+creosote bush and a tree-choya cactus (_Opuntia fulgida_)
+that grew on bare ground, twelve feet apart. When away from home
+and in danger, the pack rats evidently fled for safety to one or
+the other of those outposts. Between them the four entrance holes,
+then in use, went down into the earth; and there were also four
+abandoned holes.
+
+Connecting the two outposts,--the creosote bush and the choya,--
+with the holes that were in daily use there were some
+much-used runways, as shown on the map; and each side of each
+runway was barricaded throughout its length with spiny joints of
+the choya. A few of the joints were old and dry, but the majority
+were fresh and in full vigor. We estimated that about three
+hundred cactus joints were in use guarding those runways; and no
+coyote or fox of my acquaintance, nor eke a dog of any sense,
+would rashly jump upon that spiny pavement to capture a rat.
+
+[Illustration with caption: FORTRESS OF A PACK-RAT, AT TUCSON
+DEFENDED BY THE SPINY POINTS OF THE TREE CHOYA (_Opuntia
+fulgida_)]
+
+Beyond the cactus outpost the main run led straight to the
+sheltering base of a thick mesquite bush and a palo verde that
+grew tightly together. This gave an additional ten feet of safe
+ground, or about twenty-five feet in all.
+
+On our journey to the Pinacate Mountains, northwestern Mexico, we
+saw about twelve cactus-defended burrows of the pack rat, some of
+them carefully located in the midst of large stones that rendered
+digging by predatory animals almost impossible.
+
+The beautiful little Desert Kangaroo Rat (_Dipodomys
+deserti_) has worked out quite a different system of home
+protection. It inhabits deserts of loose sand and creosote bushes,
+where it digs burrows innumerable, always located amid the roots
+of the bushes, and each one provided with three or four
+entrances,--or exits, as the occasion may require. Each burrow is
+a bewildering labyrinth of galleries and tunnels, and in
+attempting to lay bare an interior the loose sand caved in, and
+the little sprite that lived there either escaped at a distant
+point or was lost in the shuffle of sand.
+
+The Gray Squirrel (_Sciurus carolinensis_).--This beautiful
+and sprightly animal quickly recognizes man's protection and
+friendship, and meets him half way. Go into the woods, sit still,
+make a noise like a nut, and if any grays are there very soon you
+will see them. The friendships between our Park visitors and the
+Park's wild squirrels are one of the interesting features of our
+daily life. We have an excellent picture of Mrs. Russell Sage
+sitting on a park bench with a wild gray squirrel in her lap. I
+have never seen red or fox squirrels that even approached the
+confidence of the gray squirrel in the truce with Man, the
+Destroyer, but no doubt generous treatment would produce in the
+former the gray squirrel's degree of confidence.
+
+I never knew an observer of the home life of the gray squirrel who
+was not profoundly impressed by the habit of that animal in
+burying nuts in the autumn, and digging them up for food in the
+winter and spring. From my office window I have seen our silver-
+gray friends come hopping through eight or ten inches of snow,
+carefully select a spot, then quickly bore a hole down through the
+snow to Mother Earth, and emerge with a nut. Thousands of people
+have seen this remarkable performance and I think that the
+majority of them still ask the question: "_How_ does the
+squirrel know precisely where to dig?" That question cannot be
+answered until we have learned how to read the squirrel mind.
+
+Small city parks easily become overstocked with gray squirrels
+that are not adequately fed, and the result is,--complaints of
+"depredations." Of course hungry and half-starved squirrels will
+depredate,--on birds' nests, fruit and gardens. My answer to all
+inquirers for advice in such cases is--_feed the squirrels,
+adequately, and constantly, on cracked corn and nuts, and send
+away the surplus squirrels._
+
+At this time many persons know that the wild animals and birds now
+living upon the earth are here solely because they have had
+sufficient sense to devise ways and means by which to survive. The
+ignorant, the incompetent, the slothful and the unlucky ones have
+passed from earth and joined the grand army of fossils.
+
+Take the case of the Rocky Mountain Pika, or little chief "hare,"
+of British Columbia and elsewhere. It is not a hare at all, and it
+is so queer that it occupies a family all alone. I am now
+concerning myself with _Ochotona princeps,_ of the Canadian
+Rockies. It is very small and weak, but by its wits it lives in a
+country reeking with hungry bears, wolverines and martens. The
+pika is so small and so weak that in the open he could not
+possibly dig down below the grizzly bear's ability to dig.
+
+And what does he do to save himself, and insure the survival of
+the fittest?
+
+He burrows far down in the slide-rock that falls from the cliffs,
+where he is protected by a great bed of broken stone so thick that
+no predatory animal can dig through it and catch him. There in
+those awful solitudes, enlivened only by the crack and rattle of
+falling slide-rock, the harsh cry of Clark's nut-cracker and the
+whistling wind sweeping over the storm-threshed summits and
+through the stunted cedar, the pika chooses to  make his
+home. Over the slide-rock that protects him, the snows of the long
+and dreary winter pile up from six to ten feet deep, and lie
+unbroken for months. And how does the pika survive?
+
+[Illustration
+with caption: WILD CHIPMUNKS RESPOND TO MAN'S PROTECTION. J. Alden
+Loring and his wild pets]
+
+[Illustration with caption: AN OPOSSUM FEIGNING DEATH]
+
+When he is awake, _he lives on hay, of his own making!_
+
+In September and October, and up to the arrival of the enveloping
+snow, he cuts plants of certain kinds to his liking, he places
+them in little piles atop of rocks or fallen logs where the sun
+will strike them, and he leaves them there until they dry
+sufficiently to be stored without mildewing. Mr. Charles L. Smith
+declared that the pikas know enough to change their little hay
+piles as the day wears on, from shade to sunlight. The plants to
+be made into hay are cut at the edge of the slide-rock, usually
+about a foot in length, and are carried in and placed on flat-
+topped rocks around the mouth of the burrow. The stems are laid
+together with fair evenness, and from start to finish the
+haymaking of the pika is conducted with admirable system and
+precision. When we saw and examined half a dozen of those curing
+hay piles, we felt inclined to take off our hats to the thinking
+mind of that small animal which was making a perfectly successful
+struggle to hold its own against the winter rigors of the summits,
+and at the same time escape from its enemies.
+
+The common, every-day Cotton-Tail Rabbit (_Lepus sylvaticus_)
+is not credited by anyone with being as wise as a fox, but that
+is due to our own careless habits of thought. It has been man's way,
+ever since the days of the Cavemen, to underrate all wild animals
+except himself. We are not going to cite a long line of individual
+instances to exhibit the mental processes or the natural wisdom of
+the rabbit. All we need do is to point to its success in
+maintaining its existence in spite of the enemies arrayed against
+it.
+
+Take the state of Pennsylvania, and consider this list of the
+rabbit's mortal enemies:
+
+450,000 well-armed men and boys, regularly licensed and diligently
+gunning throughout six weeks of the year, and actually killing
+each year about 3,500,000 rabbits!
+
+200,000 farmers hunting on their own farms, without licenses.
+
+Predatory animals, such as dogs, cats, skunks, foxes and weasels.
+
+Predatory birds: hawks, eagles and owls.
+
+Destructive elements: forest fires, rain, snow and sleet.
+
+Now, is it not a wonder that _any_ rabbits remain alive in
+Pennsylvania? But they are there. They refuse to be exterminated.
+Half of them annually outwit all their enemies--smart as they
+are; they avoid death by hunger and cold, and they go on breeding
+in defiance of wild men, beasts and birds. Is it not wonderful--
+the mentality of the gray rabbit? Again we say--the wild animal
+must think or die.
+
+In recognizing man's protection and friendship, the rabbit is as
+quick on the draw as the gray squirrel. In our Zoological Park
+where we constantly kill hunting cats in order that our little
+wild neighbors, the rabbits, squirrels and chipmunks may live, the
+rabbits live literally in our midst. They hang around the
+Administration Building, rear and front, as if they owned it; and
+one evening at sunset I came near stepping out upon a pair that
+were roosting on the official door-mat on the porch. There are
+times when they seem annoyed by the passage of automobiles over
+the service road.
+
+To keep hungry rabbits from barking your young apple trees in
+midwinter, spend a dollar or two in buying two or three bushels of
+corn expressly for them.
+
+The sentry system of the Prairie-"Dog" in guarding "towns" is very
+nearly perfect. A warning chatter quickly sends every "dog"
+scurrying to the mouth of its hole, ready for the dive to safety
+far below. No! the prairie-"dog," rattlesnake and burrowing owl
+emphatically do NOT dwell together in peace and harmony in the
+burrow of the "dog." The rodent hates both these interloping
+enemies, and carefully avoids them. The pocket gopher does his
+migrating and prospecting at night, when his enemies are asleep.
+The gray squirrel builds for itself a summer nest of leaves. At
+the real beginning of winter the prairie-"dog" tightly plugs up
+with moist earth the mouth of his burrow; and he packs it with his
+nose. The round-tailed muskrat of Florida (_Neofiber alleni_)
+builds a little platform over the water of the marsh in which it
+lives, on which it builds its nest high and dry. The Hudsonian red
+squirrel will bark and scold at a human intruder for half an hour.
+
+In Chapter IV I have already accorded the beaver a place with the
+most intelligent animals of the world. The books that have been
+written concerning that species have been amply justified. It is,
+however, impossible to refuse this important animal a place in any
+chapter devoted to the mental traits of rodents, and I deem it
+fitting to record here our latest experience with this remarkable
+species.
+
+Our Last Beaver Experiment. In the autumn of 1921 we emptied and
+cleaned out our Beaver Pond. The old house originally built by the
+beavers in the centre of the pond, was for sanitary reasons
+entirely removed. Work on the pond was not finished until about
+October 25; and the beavers had no house.
+
+It seemed to me a physical impossibility for the beavers to begin
+a new house at that late date and unassisted finish it by the
+beginning of winter. One beaver had escaped, and for the remaining
+three such a task would be beyond their powers. I decided to give
+them a helping hand, provided they would accept it, by providing
+them with a wooden house, which they might if they chose, entirely
+surround and snugly cover with mud and sticks.
+
+But would they accept it in a grateful spirit, and utilize it? One
+cannot always tell what a wild animal will do.
+
+With loose earth a low island with a flat top was built to carry
+the house. Its top was six inches above high-water mark, and (that
+would, if accepted) be the floor of the permanent house. A good,
+practicable tunnel was built to an underwater entrance.
+
+Upon that our men set a square, bottomless house of wood, with
+walls two feet high, and a low roof sloping four ways. Over all
+this the men piled in a neat mound a lot of tree branches of kinds
+suitable for beaver food; and with that we left the situation up
+to the beavers. The finish of our work was made on October 28.
+
+For a week there were no developments. The beavers made no sign of
+approval or disapproval. And then things began to happen. On
+November 5 we saw a beaver carrying a small green branch into the
+house for _bedding!_ That meant that our offering was going
+to be accepted.
+
+The subsequent chronology of that beaver house is as follows:
+
+Nov. 10. The beavers pulled all our brush away from the house,
+back to a distance of six or seven feet. The house stood fully
+exposed.
+
+Nov. 11. They began to pile up mud and sticks against the base of
+the south wall.
+
+Nov. 15. Mud-building to cover the house was in full progress.
+
+Nov. 17. Much of our brush had been placed in the stock of food
+wood being stored for winter use in the pond west of the house.
+
+Nov. 29. The outside of the house was completely covered up to the
+edges of the roof. The beavers were working fast and hard. No
+freezing weather yet.
+
+Dec. 15. The roof was not yet covered. Ice had formed on the pond,
+and house-building operations were at an end until the spring of
+1922.
+
+
+
+
+XV
+
+THE MENTAL TRAITS OF BIRDS
+
+
+In comparison with mammalian mentality, the avian mind is much
+more elementary and primitive. It is as far behind the average of
+the mammals as the minds of fishes are inferior to those of
+reptiles.
+
+Instinct Prominent in Birds. The average bird is more a creature
+of instinct than of reason. Primarily it lives and moves by and
+through the knowledge that it has inherited, rather than by the
+observations it has made and the things it has thought out in its
+own head.
+
+But let it not for one moment be supposed that the instinctive
+knowledge of the bird is of a mental quality inferior to that of
+the mammal. The difference is in kind only, not in degree. As a
+factor in self-preservation the keen and correct reasoning of the
+farm-land fox is in no sense superior to the wonderful instinct
+and prescience of the golden plover that, on a certain calendar
+day, or week, bids farewell to its comfortable breeding-grounds in
+the cold north beyond the arctic circle, rises high in the air and
+launches forth on its long and perilous migration flight of 8,000
+miles to its winter resort in Argentina.
+
+The Migrations of Birds. Volumes have been written on the
+migrations of birds. The subject is vast, and inexhaustable. It
+is perhaps the most wonderful of all the manifestations of avian
+intelligence. It is of interest chiefly to the birds of the
+temperate zone, whose summer homes and food supplies are for four
+months of the year buried under a mantle of snow and ice. All but
+a corporal's guard of the birds of the United States and Canada
+must go south every winter or perish from starvation and cold. It
+is a case of migrate or die. Many of the birds do not mind the
+cold of the northern winter--if it is dry; and _if they could be
+fed in winter,_ many of them would remain with us throughout
+the year.
+
+Consider the migratory habits of our own home favorites,
+and see what they reveal. After all else has been said, bird
+migration is the one unfathomable wonder of the avian world.
+Really, we know of it but little more than we know of the songs of
+the morning stars. We have learned when the birds start; we know
+that many of them fly far above the earth; we know where some of
+them land, and the bird calendars show approximately when they
+will return. And is not that really about _all_ that we do
+know?
+
+[Illustration with caption: MIGRATION OF THE GOLDEN PLOVER From
+"Bird Migration,", by Dr. W. W. Cooke, U. S. Department of
+Agriculture, 1915.]
+
+What courage it must take, to start on the long, tiresome and
+dangerous journey! How do they know where to go, far into the
+heart of the South, to find rest, food and security? When and
+where do they stop on the way to feed? Vast areas are passed over
+without alighting; for many species never are seen in mid career.
+Why is it that the golden plover feels that it is worth while to
+fly from the arctic coast to Argentina?
+
+Let any man--if one there be--who is not profoundly impressed by
+the combined instinct and the reasoning of migratory birds do
+himself the favor to procure and study the 47-page pamphlet by Dr.
+Wells W. Cooke, of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, entitled
+"Bird Migration." I wish I could reproduce it entire; but since
+that is impossible, here are a few facts and figures from it.
+
+The Bobolink summers in the northern United States and southern
+Canada, and winters in Paraguay, making 5000 miles of travel each
+way.
+
+The Scarlet Tanager summers in the northeastern quarter of the
+United States and winters in Colombia, Equador and northern Peru,
+a limit to limit flight of 3,880 miles.
+
+The Golden Plover (_Charadrius dominicus_).--"In fall it
+flies over the ocean from Nova Scotia to South America, 2,400
+miles--the longest known flight of any bird. In spring it returns
+by way of the Mississippi Valley. Thus the migration routes form
+an enormous ellipse, with a minor axis of 2,000 miles and a major
+axis stretching 8,000 miles from arctic America to Argentina."
+(Cooke.) The Arctic Tern (_Sterna paradisaea_), is "the
+champion long-distance migrant of the world. It breeds as far
+north as it can find land on which to build its nest, and winters
+as far south as there is open water to furnish it food. The
+extreme summer and winter homes are 11,000 miles apart, or a
+yearly round trip of 22,000 miles." (Cooke.)
+
+By what do migrating birds guide their courses high in air on a
+pitch-dark night,--their busy time for flying? Do they, too, know
+about the mariner's Southern Cross, and steer by it on starlit
+nights? Equally strange things have happened.
+
+The regular semi-annual migrations of birds may fairly be regarded
+as the high-water mark of instinct so profound and far-reaching
+that it deserves to rank as high as reason. To me it is one of the
+most marvelous things in Nature's Book of Wonders. I never see a
+humming-bird poised over a floral tube of a trumpet creeper
+without pausing, in wonder that is perpetual, and asking the
+eternal question: "Frail and delicate feathered sprite, that any
+storm-gust might dash to earth and destroy, and that any enemy
+might crush, _how_ do you make your long and perilous
+journeys unstarved and unkilled? Is it because you bear a charmed
+life? What is the unsolved mystery of your tiny existence in this
+rough and cruel world?"
+
+We understand well enough the foundation principles of mammalian
+and avian life, and existence under adverse circumstances. The
+mammal is tied to his environment. He cannot go far from the
+circumpolar regions of his home. A bear chained to a stake is
+emblematic of the universal handicap on mammalian life. Survive or
+perish, the average land-going quadruped must stay put, and make
+the best of the home in which he is born. If he attempts to
+migrate fast and far, he is reasonably certain to get into grave
+danger, and lose his life.
+
+The bird, however, is a free moral agent. If the purple grackle
+does not like the sunflower seeds in my garden, lo! he is up and
+away across the Sound to Oyster Bay, Long Island, where his luck
+may be better. Failing there, he gives himself a transfer to
+Wilmington, or Richmond, via his own Atlantic coast line.
+
+The wonderful migratory instincts of birds have been developed
+and intensified through countless generations by the imperative
+need for instinctive guidance, and the comparatively small
+temptation to inductive reasoning based on known facts. Evidently
+the bird is emboldened to migrate by the comfortable belief that
+somewhere the world contains food and warmth to its liking, and
+that if it flies fast enough and far enough it will find it.
+
+As a weather prophet, the prescience of the bird is strictly
+limited. The warm spells of late February deceive the birds just
+as they do the flowers of the peach tree and the apple. Often the
+bluebirds and robins migrate northward too early, encounter
+blizzards, and perish in large numbers from snow, sleet, cold and
+hunger.
+
+The Homing Sense of Birds. We can go no farther than to say that
+while the homing instinct of certain species of birds is quite
+well known, the mental process by which it functions is
+practically unknown. The direction instinct of the homing pigeon
+is marvelous, but we know that that instinct does not leap full-
+fledged from the nest. The homer needs assistance and training.
+When it is about three months old, it is taken in a basket to a
+point a mile distant from its home and liberated. If it makes good
+in returning to the home loft, the distances are increased by easy
+stages--two, three, five, ten, twenty, thirty, fifty and seventy-
+five miles usually being flown before the bird is sent as far as
+100 miles. The official long-distance record for a homing pigeon
+is 1689.44 miles, held by an American bird.
+
+The homing instinct, or sense, is present in some mammals, but it
+is by no means so phenomenal as in some species of birds. In
+mammals it is individual rather than species-wide. Individual
+horses, dogs and cats have done wonderful things under the
+propulsion of the homing instinct, but that instinct is by no
+means general throughout those species. Among wild animals,
+exhibitions of the home-finding instinct are rare, but the annals
+of the Zoological Park contain one amusing record.
+
+For emergency reasons, a dozen fallow deer once were quartered in
+our Bison range, behind a fence only sixty-six inches high.
+Presently they leaped out to freedom, disappeared in the thick
+northern forests of the Bronx, and we charged them up to profit
+and loss. But those deer soon found that life outside our domain
+was not the dream of paradise that they had supposed. After about
+a week of wandering through a cold, unsympathetic and oatless
+world those were sadder and wiser deer, and one night they all
+returned and joyously and thankfully jumped back into their range,
+where they were happy ever after.
+
+Recognition of Sanctuary Protection. In this field of precise
+observation and reasoning, most birds,--if not indeed all of
+them,--are quick in discernment and accurate in deduction. The
+great gauntlet of guns has taught the birds of the United States
+and Canada to recognize the difference between areas of shooting
+and no shooting. Dull indeed is the bird mind that does not know
+enough to return to the feeding-ground in which it has been safe
+from attack. The wild geese and ducks are very keen about
+sanctuary waters, and no protected pond or river is too small to
+command attention. Our own little Lake Agassiz, in the New York
+Zoological Park, each year is the resort of hundreds of mallards
+and black ducks. And each year a number of absolutely wild wood
+ducks breed there and in spite of all dangers rear their young.
+Our wild-fowl pond, surrounded by various installations for birds,
+several times has been honored by visiting delegations of wild
+geese, seven of which were caught in 1902 for exhibition.
+
+The most astounding example of avian recognition of protection
+and human friendship is the spectacle of Mr. Jack Miner's wild
+goose sanctuary at Kingsville, Ontario, not far from Detroit. With
+his tile works on one side and his home on the other, he scooped
+out between them clay for his factory and made a small pond. With
+deliberate and praiseworthy intention Mr. Miner planted there a
+little flock of pinioned wild Canada geese, as a notice of
+sanctuary and an invitation to wild flocks to come down for food,
+rest and good society.
+
+Very slowly at first the wild geese began to come; but finally the
+word was passed along the line from Hudson Bay to Currituck Sound
+that Miner's roadhouse was a good place at which to stop. Year by
+year the wild geese came, and saw, and were conquered. So many
+thousands came that presently Mr. Miner grew tired of spending out
+of his own pocket more than $700 a year for goose corn; and then
+the Canadian government most commendably assumed the burden, and
+made Mr. Miner's farm a national bird preserve. [Footnote: Mr.
+Miner is writing his wild-goose story into a book: and the story
+is worth it!]
+
+The annals of wild life protection literature contain many records
+and illustrations of the remarkable quickness and thoroughness of
+sanctuary recognition by birds. On the other hand I feel greatly
+annoyed by the failure of waterfowl to reason equally well
+regarding the decoys of duck-shooters. They fail to learn, either
+by experience or hearsay, that small flocks of ducks sitting
+motionless near a shore are loaded, and liable to go off. They
+fail to learn that it is most wise to settle well outside such
+flocks of alleged ducks, and that it is a fatal mistake to plump
+down on the top of a motionless bunch.
+
+Protective Association of Wasps and Caciques. The colonizing
+caciques, of South America, representing four genera, are very
+solicitous of the safety of their colonies. In numerous cases,
+these colonies are found in association with wasps, one or more
+nests invariably being found near the nests of the birds. It is
+natural to infer that this strange association is due to the
+initiative of the birds. When monkeys attack the birds, the birds
+need the stinging insects.
+
+As usual in the study of wild creatures, the first thing that we
+encounter in the wild bird is
+
+Temperament. On this hangs the success or failure of a species in
+association with man. Temperament in the most intellectual wild
+creatures is just as evident and negotiable to the human eye as
+colors are in fur or feathers.
+
+A vastly preponderating number of bird species are of sanguine
+temperament; and it is this fact alone that renders it possible
+for us to exhibit continuously from 700 to 800 species of birds.
+Sensible behavior in captivity is the one conspicuous trait of
+character in which birds mentally and physically are far better
+balanced than mammals. But few birds are foolishly nervous or
+hysterical, and when once settled down the great majority of them
+are sanguine and philosophical. Birds of a great many species can
+be caught in an adult state and settled down in captivity without
+difficulty; whereas all save a few species of mammals, when
+captured as adults, are irreconcilable fighters and many of them
+die far too quickly. In a well-regulated zoological park nearly
+every animal that has been caught when adult is a failure and a
+nuisance.
+
+To name the species of birds that can be caught fully grown and
+settled down for exhibition purposes, would create a list of
+formidable length. It is indeed fortunate for us that this is
+true; for the rearing of nestlings is a tedious task.
+
+A conspicuous exception to the rule of philosophic sedateness in
+newly caught birds is the loon, or great northern diver. That bird
+is so exceedingly nervous and foolish, and so persistent in its
+evil ways, that never once have we succeeded in inducing a loon to
+settle down on exhibition and be good. When caught and placed in
+our kind of captivity, the loon goes daft. It dives and dives, and
+swims under water until it is completely exhausted; it loses its
+appetite, and very soon dies. Of course if one had a whole marine
+biological station to place at the disposal of the foolish loon,
+it might get on.
+
+There are other odd exceptions to the rule of normal bird conduct.
+Some of our upland game birds, particularly the Franklin grouse
+and ptarmigan of the Rocky Mountains, display real mental
+deficiencies in the very necessary business of self-preservation.
+
+WILDNESS AND TAMENESS OF THE RUFFED GROUSE. The ruffed grouse is
+one of the most difficult of all North American game birds to keep
+in captivity. This fact is due largely, though not entirely, to
+the nervous and often hysterical temperament of this species. Some
+birds will within a reasonable time quiet down and accept
+captivity, but others throughout long periods,--or forever,--
+remain wild as hawks, and perpetually try to dash themselves to
+pieces against the wire of their enclosures. Prof. A. A. Allen of
+Cornell once kept a bird for an entire year, only to find it at
+the end of that time hopelessly wild; so he gave the bird its
+liberty.
+
+However, in this species there are numerous exceptions. Some wing-
+tipped birds have calmed down and accepted captivity gracefully
+and sensibly, and a few of the cases of this kind have been
+remarkable. The most astonishing cases, however, have been of the
+tameness of free wild birds, in the Catskills, and also near the
+city of Schenectady. A great many perfectly truthful stories have
+been published of wild birds that actually sought close
+acquaintance with people, and took food from their hands.
+
+We have been asked to account for those strange manifestations,
+but it is impossible to do so. It seems that in some manner,
+certain grouse individuals learned that Man is not always a killer
+and a dangerous animal, and so those birds accepted him as a
+friend,--until the killers came along and violated the sanctuary
+status.
+
+It is both necessary, and highly desirable for the increase of
+species, that all wild birds should fly promptly, rapidly and far
+from the presence of Man, the Arch Enemy of Wild Life. The species
+that persistently neglects to do so, or is unable, soon is utterly
+destroyed. The great auk species was massacred and extirpated on
+Funk Island because it could not get away from its sordid enemies
+who destroyed it for a paltry supply of _oil_.
+
+The Fool Hen and Its Folly. In our own country there exists a
+grouse species so foolish in its mind, and so destitute of the
+most ordinary instinct of self-preservation that it has been known
+for many years as "the Fool Hen." Definitely, it is the Franklin
+Grouse (_Conachites franklini_), and its home is in the
+foothills of the Rocky Mountains. This famous and pitiable victim
+of misplaced confidence will sit only eight feet up on a jack pine
+limb, beside a well travelled road, while Mack Norboe dismounts,
+finds a suitable stick, and knocks the foolish bird dead from its
+perch. I have seen these birds sit still and patiently wait for
+their heads to be shot off, one by one, with a .22 calibre
+revolver when all points of the compass were open for their
+escape.
+
+All this, however, must be set down as an unusual and phenomenal
+absence of the most natural instinct of self-protection. The
+pinnated grouse, sage grouse, Bob White quail and ptarmigan
+exercise but little keen reason in self-protection. They are easy
+marks,--the joy of the pot-hunter and the delight of the duffer
+"sportsman."
+
+Dullness of Instinct in Grouse and Quail. The pinnated grouse,
+which in Iowa and the Dakotas positively is a migratory bird, does
+know enough to fly high when it is migrating, but seemingly this
+species and the sage grouse never will grow wise enough to save
+themselves from hunters when on their feeding grounds. In
+detecting the presence of their arch enemy they are hopelessly
+dull; and they are slow in taking wing.
+
+The quail is a very good hider, but a mighty poor flyer. When a
+covey is flushed by a collection of dogs and armed men, the
+lightning-quick and explosive get-away is all right; but the
+unshot birds do not fly half far enough! Instead of bowling away
+for two or three miles and getting clear out of the danger zone
+and hiding in the nearest timber, what do they do? They foolishly
+stop on the other side of the field, or in the next acre of brush,
+in full view of the hunters and dogs, who find it great fun to
+hustle after them and in fifteen minutes put them up again. Thus
+it is easy for a hunting party to "follow up" a covey until the
+last bird of it has been bagged.
+
+Just before the five-year close season on quail went into effect
+in Iowa, this incident occurred:
+
+On a farm of four hundred acres in the southern part of the state,
+two gunners killed so nearly up to their bag limit of _fifty
+birds per day_ that in ten days they went away with 400 quail.
+The foolish birds obstinately refused to leave the farm which had
+been their home and shelter. Day after day the chase with dogs and
+men, and the fusillade of shots, went briskly on. As a matter of
+fact, that outfit easily could have gone on until every quail on
+that farm had fallen.
+
+It is indeed strange that the very bird which practices such fine
+and successful strategy in leading an intruder away from its
+helpless young, by playing wounded, should fail so seriously when
+before the guns. A hunted quail covey should learn to post a
+sentry to watch for danger and give the alarm in time for a safe
+flight.
+
+But I know one quail species that is a glorious exception. It is
+Gambel's quail, of southern Arizona. I saw a good wing shot, Mr.
+John M. Phillips, hunt that quail (without dogs) until he was hot
+and red, and come in with more wrath than birds. He said, with an
+injured air:
+
+"The little beggars won't rise! I don't want to shoot them on the
+ground, and the minute they rise above the creosote bushes they
+drop right down into them again, and go on running."
+
+It was even so. They simply will not rise and fly away, as Bob
+White does, giving the sportsmen a chance to kill them, but when
+forced to fly up clear of the bushes they at once drop back again.
+[Footnote: A very few quail-killers of the East who oppose long
+close seasons contend that quail coveys "breed better" when they
+are shot to pieces every year and "scattered," but we observed
+that the quail of the Sonoran Desert managed to survive and breed
+and perpetuate themselves numerously without the benevolent
+cooperation of the "pump-gun" and the automatic shotgun.] While
+the study of avian mentality is a difficult undertaking, this is
+no excuse for the fact that up to this date (1922) that field of
+endeavor has been only scratched on its surface. The birds of the
+world are by no means so destitute of ideas and inventions that
+they merit almost universal neglect. Because of the suggestions
+they contain we will point out a few prominent mental traits in
+birds, chosen at random.
+
+At the same time, let us all beware of seeing too much, and chary
+of recording scientific hallucinations. It is better to see
+nothing than to see many things that are not true! In ten octavo
+pages that particular rock can split wide open the best reputation
+ever grown.
+
+Bird Architecture. The wisdom of birds in the selection of nesting
+sites, the designing of the best nest for their respective wants,
+and finally the construction of them, indicate instinct, reasoning
+power and mechanical skill of a high order. The range from the
+wonderful woven homes of the weaver bird and the Baltimore oriole
+down to the bare and nestless incubating spot of the penguin is so
+great that nothing less than a volume can furnish space in which
+to set it forth. But let us at least take a brief glance at a wide
+range of home-building activities by birds.
+
+The orioles, caciques and weavers weave wonderful homes of fibrous
+material, often in populous communities.
+
+The bower birds erect remarkable bowers, as playhouses.
+
+The brush turkey scratches together a huge mound of sticks and
+leaves, four feet by ten or twelve wide at the base.
+
+The vireo and many others turn out beautiful cup-like nests.
+
+The hummingbird builds with the solidity and tenacity of the wasp.
+
+The swallow is a wonderful modeler with mud.
+
+The guacharo builds a solid nest like a cheese with a concave top.
+
+The auklet, the puffin and the kingfishers burrow into the
+friendly and solid earth. The eider duck plucks from its own breast
+the softest, of feather linings for its nest.
+
+[Illustration with caption: REMARKABLE
+VILLAGE NESTS OF THE SOCIABLE WEAVER BIRD (Copied from "The Fauna
+of South Africa Birds," by Arthur C. Stark)]
+
+The grebe thoughtfully keeps its nest above high-water mark by
+building on a floating island.
+
+The murre and the guillemot do their best to escape their enemies
+of the land by building high upon inaccessible rock ledges.
+
+The woodpecker trusts no living species save his own, and drills
+high up into a hollow tree-trunk for his home.
+
+The cactus wren and crissal thrasher build in the geographical
+centres of tree choyas, so protected by 500,000 spines that no
+hawk or owl can reach them.
+
+This catalogue could be extended to a great length; but why pile
+evidence upon evidence!
+
+It cannot be correct to assume that the nesting activities of
+birds are based upon instinct alone. That theory would be
+untenable. New conditions call for independent thought, and
+originality of treatment. If the ancestral plans and
+specifications could not be varied, then every bird would have to
+build a nest just "such as mother used to make," or have no brood.
+
+All bird students know full well how easily the robin, the wren,
+the hawk and the owl change locations and materials to meet new
+and strange conditions. A robin has been known to build on the
+running-board of a switch-engine in a freight yard, and another
+robin built on the frame of the iron gate of an elephant yard. A
+wren will build in a tin can, a piece of drain tile, a lantern, a
+bird house or a coat pocket, just as blithely as its grandmother
+built in a grape arbor over a kitchen door. All this is the hall
+mark of New Thought.
+
+Whenever children go afield in bird country, they are constantly
+on the alert for fresh discoveries and surprises in bird
+architecture. Interest in the nest-building ingenuity and
+mechanical skill of birds is perpetual. The variety is almost
+endless. Dull indeed is the mind to which a cunningly contrived
+nest does not appeal. Tell the boys that it is _all right_ to
+collect _abandoned_ nests, but the taking of eggs and
+occupied nests is unlawful and wicked.
+
+The Play-House of the Bower Bird. Years ago we read of the
+wonderful playhouses constructed by the bower birds of Australia
+and New Guinea, but nothing ever brought home to us this
+remarkable manifestation of bird thought so closely as did the
+sight of our own satin bower bird busily at work on his own bower.
+He was quartered in the great indoor flying cage of our largest
+bird house, and supplied with hard grass stems of the right sort
+for bower-making.
+
+With those materials, scattered over the sand floor, the bird
+built his bower by taking each stem in his beak, holding it very
+firmly and then with a strong sidewise and downward thrust
+slicking it upright in the sand, to stand and to point "just
+exactly so." The finished bower was a Gothic tunnel with walls of
+grass stems, about eighteen inches long and a foot high. In making
+it the male bird wrought as busily as a child building a playhouse
+of blocks. Our bird would pick up pieces of blue yarn that had
+been placed in his cage to test his color sense, but never red,--
+which color seemed to displease him. As the bird worked quietly
+yet diligently, one could not help longing to know what thoughts
+were at work in that busy little brain.
+
+The most elaborate of all the bower bird play-houses is that
+constructed by the gardener bower bird, which is thus described by
+Pycraft in his "History of Birds":
+
+"This species builds at the foot of a small tree a kind of hut or
+cabin, some two feet in height, roofed with orchid stems that
+slope to the ground, regularly radiating from the central support,
+which is covered with a conical mass of moss sheltering a gallery
+round it. One side of this hut is left open, and in front of it is
+arranged a bed of verdant moss, bedecked with blossoms and berries
+of the brightest color. As the ornaments wither they are removed
+to a heap behind the hut and replaced by others that are fresh.
+The hut is circular and some three feet in diameter, and the mossy
+lawn in front of it is nearly twice that expanse. Each hut and garden
+is believed to be the work of a single pair of birds. The use of the
+hut, it appears, is solely to serve the purpose of a playing-ground,
+or as a place wherein to pay court to the female, since it, like the
+bowers built by its near relatives, are built long before the nest
+is begun, this, by  the way, being placed in a tree."
+
+[Illustration with caption: SPOTTED BOWER-BIRD, AT WORK ON ITS
+UNFINISHED BOWER Foreground garnished with the bird's playthings.
+(From A. S. Le Souef, Sydney. Photo by F. C. Morse)]
+
+Most Birds Fear Man. With the exception of those that have been
+reared in captivity, nearly all species of wild birds, either in
+captivity or out of it, fear the touch of man, and shrink from
+him. The birds of the lawn, the orchard and the farm are always
+suspicious, always on the defensive. But of course there are
+exceptions. A naturalist like J. Alden Loring can by patient
+effort win the confidence of a chickadee, or a phoebe bird, and
+bring it literally to his finger. These exceptions, however, are
+rare, but they show conclusively that wild birds can be educated
+into new ideas.
+
+The shrinking of wild birds from the hand of man is almost as
+pronounced in captivity as it is in the wilderness, and this fact
+renders psychological experiments with birds extremely difficult.
+It is really strange that the parrots and cockatoos all should
+take kindly to man, trust him and even like him, while nearly all
+other birds persistently fly, or run, or swim or dive away from
+him. A bird keeper may keep for twenty years, feeding daily, but
+his hawks, owls and eagles, the perchers, waders, swimmers and
+upland game birds all fly from him in nervous fear whenever he
+attempts to handle them. The exceptions to this rule, out of the
+20,000 species of the birds of the world, are few.
+
+Wild Birds that Voluntarily Associate with Man. The species that
+will do so are not numerous, and I will confine myself to some of
+those that I have seen.
+
+The Indian adjutant, the mynah, hoopoe, vulture, robin, phoebe
+bird, bluebird, swallow, barn owl, flicker, oriole, jay, magpie,
+crow, purple grackle, starling, stork, wood pigeon, Canada goose,
+mallard, pintail, bob white and a few other species have accepted
+man at his face value and endeavored to establish with him a
+modus vivendi. The mallard and the graylag goose are the ancestors
+of our domestic ducks and geese. The jungle fowls have given us
+the domestic chickens. The wild turkey, the pheasants, the guinea
+fowl, the ostrich, the emu and the peacock we possess in
+domestication unchanged.
+
+Caged Wild Birds Quickly Appreciate Sanctuary. Mr. Crandall
+reports that in the Zoological Park there have been many instances
+of the voluntary return to their cages of wild birds that have
+escaped from them. The following instances are cited, out of many
+that are remembered:
+
+A wild hermit thrush, only two weeks in captivity, escaped from an
+outdoor cage. But he refused to leave the vicinity of his new
+home, and permanent food supply. He lingered around for two or
+three days, and finally a wise keeper opened the cage door when he
+was near it, and at once he went in.
+
+A magpie escaped from an outside cage, and for a week he lingered
+around it unwilling to leave its vicinity. At last the other birds
+of the cage were removed, the door was left open, and the magpie
+at once went back home.
+
+Bird Memory and Talk. Birds have few ways and means by which to
+reveal their powers of memory. The best exhibits are made by the
+talking parrots and cockatoos. The feats of some of these birds,
+both in memory and expression, are really wonderful. The startling
+aptness with which some parrots apply the language they possess
+often is quite uncanny. Concerning "sound mimicry" and the
+efforts of memory on which they are based, Mr. Lee S. Crandall,
+Curator of Birds, has contributed the following statement of his
+observations:
+
+"Many birds, including practically all members of the parrot
+tribe, many of the crows and jays, as well as mynas and starlings,
+learn to repeat sounds, words and sentences. Ability varies with
+both species and individuals. Certain species show greater
+aptitude as a whole than other species, while there is a great
+difference between individuals of the same species. "Gray
+parrots are generally considered the most intelligent of their
+tribe, and are especially apt at imitating sounds, such as running
+water, whistles, etc. I have one at home which always answers a
+knock with 'Come in.' Often he furnishes the knock himself by
+pounding the perch with his bill, following it with 'Come in.'
+Amazon parrots are especially good at tunes, some specimens being
+able to whistle complicated airs and sometimes sing several verses
+in a high, clear voice. Both grays and Amazons often talk with
+great fluency, vocabularies having been reported of as many as one
+hundred words. Often there seems to be intelligent association of
+certain acts or conditions with corresponding sentences, these
+sometimes occurring with singular patness.
+
+"Hill mynahs, of the genus _Eulabes,_ often talk as well as
+parrots. The common introduced European starling often says a few
+words quite clearly. I once knew a long-tailed glossy starling
+(_Lamprotornis caudatus_) which shared an aviary with an
+accomplished albino jackdaw. The starling had acquired much of the
+jackdaw's repertoire, and the 'conversations' carried on between
+the two birds were most amusing."
+
+A raven in the Zoological Park says "Arthur," "Shut up," "All out"
+and "Now look what's here" as perfectly as any parrot.
+
+Listed in the order of their ability to learn and remember talk,
+the important talking birds are as follows: African gray parrot,
+yellow-headed Amazon, other Amazons, the hill mynahs, the
+cockatoos, the macaws, and the various others previously
+mentioned.
+
+It is safe to assert that all migratory birds display excellent
+powers of memory, chiefly by returning to their favorite haunts
+after long absences.
+
+Recognition of Persons. Mr. Crandall says there can be no doubt of
+the ability of most birds to recognize individual persons. This is
+seen in the smallest species as well as in the largest. He once
+saw a bullfinch in the last stages of pneumonia and almost
+comatose, show an instant reaction to the presence of an owner it
+had not seen in weeks. Many birds form dislikes for individual
+persons. This is especially noticeable in the parrot tribe. A
+large male South American condor was friendly enough with two of
+his keepers but would instantly attack any other keeper or other
+person entering his enclosure, whether wearing the uniform or not.
+With his two approved keepers he was gentleness itself.
+
+Parasitic Nesting Habits. In the bird world there are a few
+species whose members are determined to get something for nothing,
+and to avoid all labor in the rearing of their offspring. This
+bad habit is known of the Old World cuckoos, the American cow-
+birds, the South American rice grackle (_Cassidix_), and
+suspected in the pin-tail whydah (_Vidua serena_). It seems
+to reach its highest point in the cuckoos. It is believed that
+individuals lay their eggs only in the nests of species whose eggs
+resemble their own. Apparently much skill and intelligence is
+required for introducing parasitic eggs at the most favorable
+moment. This is equally true of other parasites.
+
+Curator Crandall has taken several eggs and young of the rice
+birds from nests of two species of giant caciques in Costa Rica,
+but never saw an adult _Cassidix._ It is considered a very
+rare species, but probably is more sly than scarce. Young cuckoos
+eject unwelcome nestlings shortly after hatching.
+
+Daily contact with a large and varied collection of birds great
+and small, gathered from every section of the habitable regions of
+the earth, naturally produces in time a long series of interesting
+cases of intelligence and behavior. Out of our total occurrences
+and observations I will offer two that reveal original thought.
+
+Good Sense of the Wedge-Tailed Eagle. In discussing bird
+intelligence with Mr. Herbert D. Atkin, keeper of our Eagles
+Aviary and the cranes and water birds in the Flying Cage, he
+called to my attention two species of birds which had very much
+impressed him. Afterward he showed me all that he described.
+Keeper Atkin regards the wedge-tailed eagle, of Australia, as the
+wisest species with which he has to deal. In the first place, all
+four of the birds in that flock recognize the fact that he is a
+good friend, not an enemy, and each day they receive him in their
+midst with cheerful confidence and friendship. In the fall when
+the time comes to catch them, crate them and wheel them half a
+mile to their winter quarters in the Ostrich House, they do not
+become frightened, nor fight against being handled, and submit
+with commendable sense and appreciation.
+
+The one thing on which the wedge-tailed eagle really insists when
+in his summer quarters, is his daily spray bath from a hose. When
+his keeper goes in to give the daily morning wash to the cage, the
+eagles perch close above his head and screech and scream until the
+spray is turned upon them. Then they spread their wings, to get it
+thoroughly, and come out thoroughly soaked. When the spray is
+merely turned upon their log instead of upon the birds as they
+sit higher up, they fly down and get into the current wherever it
+may be.
+
+Memory of the Cereopsis Goose. Keeper Atkin also showed me an
+instance of the wisdom of the cereopsis geese, from Van Diemens
+Land, South Australia. During the winter those birds are kept in
+the Wild-Fowl Pond; but in summer they are quartered in a secluded
+yard of the Crane's Paddock, nearly half a mile away. Twice a year
+these birds go under their own steam between those two enclosures.
+When turned out of the Cranes' Paddock last November they at once
+set out and walked very briskly southward up the Bird's Valley,
+past the Zebra House. On reaching the Service Road, a quarter of a
+mile away, they turned to the left and kept on to the Wolf Dens.
+There they turned to the right and kept on two hundred yards until
+they reached the walk coming down from the Reptile House. There
+they turned to the left, crossed the bridge, stopped at the gate
+to the Wild-Fowl Pond enclosure, and when the gate was opened they
+entered and declared themselves "at home."
+
+Mr. Atkin says that in spring these birds show just as much
+interest in going back to their summer home. Falconry. We cannot
+do otherwise than regard the ancient sport of falconry as a high
+tribute to the mental powers of the genus _Falco._ The
+hunting falcons were educated into the sport of hawking, just as a
+boy is trained by his big brother to shoot quail on the wing. The
+birds were furnished with hoods and jesses, and other garnitures.
+They were carried on the hand of the huntsman, and launched at
+unlucky herons and bitterns as an _intelligent_ living force.
+The hunting falcon entered into the sport like a true sportsman,
+and he played the game according to the rules. The sport was
+cruel, but it was politely exciting, and it certainly was a fine
+exhibition of bird intelligence. Part of that intelligence was
+instinctive, but the most of it was acquired, by educational
+methods.
+
+Outstanding Traits in a Few Groups of Birds. In creatures as much
+lacking in visible expression as most birds are, it is difficult
+to detect the emotions and temperaments that prevail in the
+various groups. Only a few can be cited with certain confidence.
+
+Vanity Displays in Birds. The males of a few species of birds have
+been specially equipped by nature for the display of their natural
+vanity. Anyone who has seen a Zoological Park peacock working
+overtime on a Sunday afternoon in summer when the crowds of
+visitors are greatest, solely to display the ocellated splendor of
+his tail plumage, surely must conclude that the bird is well aware
+of the glories of his tail, and also that he positively enjoys
+showing off to admiring audiences.
+
+These displays are not casual affairs in the ordinary course of
+the day's doings. It is a common thing for one of our birds to
+choose a particularly conspicuous spot, preferably on an elevated
+terrace, from which his display will carry farthest to the eyes of
+the crowd. Even if the bird were controlled by the will of a
+trainer for the purpose of vanity display, the exhibition could
+not possibly be more perfect. Like a good speaker on a rostrum,
+the bird faces first in one direction and then in another, and
+occasionally with a slow and stately movement it completely
+revolves on its axis for the benefit of those in the rear. "Vain
+as a peacock" is by no means an unjustifiable comparison.
+
+Plumage displays are indulged in by turkeys, the blue bird of
+paradise, the greater and lesser birds of paradise, the sage
+grouse and pinnated grouse, ruffed grouse, golden pheasant and
+argus pheasant.
+
+On the whole, we may fairly set down vanity as one of the well
+defined emotions in certain birds, and probably possessed by the
+males in many species which have not been provided by nature with
+the means to display it conspicuously.
+
+Materials for Study. In seeking means by which to study the mental
+and temperamental traits of wild birds and mammals, the definite
+and clearly cut manifestations are so few in kind that we are glad
+to seize upon everything available. Of the visible evidences,
+pugnacity and the fighting habit are valuable materials, because
+they are visible. Much can be learned from the fighting weakness
+or strength of animals and men.
+
+In our great collections of birds drawn from all the land areas of
+the globe, our bird men see much fighting. Mr. Crandall has
+prepared for me in a condensed form an illuminating collection of
+facts regarding
+
+PUGNACITY IN CAPTIVE BIRDS
+
+1. Most species do more or less competitive fighting for nesting
+sites or mates, especially:
+
+Gallinaceous birds,--many of which fight furiously for mates;
+
+The Ruff, or Fighting Snipe (_Machetes pugnax_),--very
+pugnacious for mates;
+
+House Sparrows (_Passer domesticus_) fight for nesting places
+and mates; and
+
+Some Waterfowl, especially swans and geese, fight for nesting
+places.
+
+2. Most species which do not depend chiefly upon concealment,
+fight fiercely in defense of nests or young. Typical examples are:
+
+Geese;
+
+Swans;
+
+The larger Flycatchers;
+
+Birds of prey, especially the more powerful ones, such as Bald
+Eagles, Duck Hawks and Horned Owls.
+
+3. Some species fight in competition for food. Conspicuous
+examples are:
+
+The fiercer hawks;
+
+Some carrion eaters, as the King Vulture, Black, Sharp-Shinned,
+Cooper, Gos and Duck Hawks, which fight in the air over prey.
+
+4. Certain birds show pugnacity in connection with the robber
+instinct, as:
+
+Bald Eagle, which robs the Osprey;
+
+Skua and Jaeger, which rob gulls.
+
+5. Some species show general pugnacity. Species to be cited are:
+
+Cassowaries, Emus and Ostriches, all of which are more or less
+dangerous;
+
+Saras Cranes, which strike wickedly and without warning;
+
+Some Herons, especially if confined, and
+
+Birds of Paradise, which are unreasonably quarrelsome.
+
+6. In non-social birds, each male will fight for his own breeding
+and feeding territory. The struggle for territory is a wide one,
+and it is now attracting the attention of bird psychologists.
+
+Birds are no more angelic than human beings are. They have their
+faults and their mean traits, just as we have; but their
+repertoire is not so great as ours. In every species that we have
+seen tried out in captivity, the baser passions are present. This
+is equally true of mammals. In _confinement_, in every herd
+and in every flock from elephants down to doves, the strong bully
+and oppress the weak, and drive them to the wall.
+
+_The most philosophic and companionable birds_ are the
+parrots, parakeets, macaws and cockatoos.
+
+_The birds that most quickly recognize protection_
+sanctuaries and accept them, are the geese, ducks and swans.
+
+_The game birds most nervous and foolish, and difficult to
+maintain in captivity,_ are the grouse, ptarmigan and quail.
+
+_The bird utterly destitute of sense_ in captivity is the
+loon.
+
+_The birds that are most domineering_ in captivity are the
+cranes.
+
+_The birds that are most treacherous_ in captivity are the
+darters (_Anhinga_).
+
+_The birds that go easiest and farthest in training_ are the
+parrots, macaws and cockatoos.
+
+_The most beautiful bird species of the world_ are about
+fifty in number; and only a few of them are found among the birds
+of paradise.
+
+The minds of wild birds are quite as varied and diversified as are
+the forms and habits of the different orders and genera. XVI
+
+THE WISDOM OF THE SERPENT
+
+OF all the vertebrates, the serpents live under the greatest
+handicaps. They are hated and destroyed by all men, they can
+neither run nor fly far away, and they subsist under maximum
+difficulties. Those of the temperate zone are ill fitted to
+withstand the rigors of winter.
+
+And yet the serpents survive; and we have not heard of any species
+having become extinct during our own times.
+
+It is indeed worth while to "consider the wisdom of the serpent."
+Without the exercise of keen intelligence all the snakes of the
+cultivated lands of the world long ago would have been
+exterminated. The success of serpents of all species in meeting
+new conditions and maintaining their existence in the face of
+enormous difficulties compels us, as reasoning beings, to accord
+to them keen intelligence and ratiocination.
+
+The poisonous serpents afford a striking illustration of reason
+and folly en masse. The total number of venomous species is really
+great, and their distribution embraces practically the whole of
+the torrid and temperate zones. They are too numerous for mention
+here; and their capacity for mischief to man is very great. Our
+own country has at least eighteen species of poisonous snakes,
+including the rattlesnakes, the copperhead, moccasin, and coral
+snakes. All these, however, are remarkably pacific. Without
+exception they are non-aggressive, and they attack only when they
+think they are exposed to danger, and must defend themselves or
+die. Hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of our people have
+tramped through the woods and slept in the sage-brush and creosote
+bushes of the rattlesnake, and waded through swamps full of
+moccasins, with never a bite. In America only about two persons
+per year are bitten by _wild_ rattlesnakes.
+
+Our snakes, and all but a very few of the other poison-snake
+species of the world, know that _it pays to keep the peace._
+Now, what if all snakes were as foolishly aggressive as the hooded
+and spectacled cobras of India? Let us see.
+
+Those cobra species are man-haters. They love to attack and do
+damage. They go out of their way to bite people. They crawl into
+huts and bungalows, especially during the monsoon rains, and they
+infest thatch roofs. But are they wise, and retiring, like the
+house-haunting gopher snake of the South?
+
+By no means. The cobra goes around with a chip on his shoulder. In
+India they kill from 17,000 to 18,000 people annually! And in
+return, about 117,000 cobras are killed annually. It is a mighty
+fortunate thing for humanity on the frontier that the other
+serpents of the world know that it is a good thing to behave
+themselves, and not bite unnecessarily.
+
+Fighting Its Own Kind. The Indian cobra, (_Naia tripudians_),
+is an exception to the rule of serpents that forbids fighting in
+the family. While cobras in captivity usually do live together in
+a state of vicious and fully-armed neutrality, sometimes they do
+fight. One of our cobras once attacked a cage-mate two-thirds the
+size of itself, vanquished it, seized it by the head and swallowed
+two-thirds of it before the tragedy was discovered. The assailant
+was compelled to disgorge his prey, but the victim was very dead.
+
+The poison venom of the cobra, rattlesnake, bushmaster and puff
+adder is a great handicap on the social standing of the entire
+serpent family. Mankind in general abhors snakes, both in general
+and particular. The snake not actually known to be venomous
+usually is suspected of being so. It is only the strongest mental
+constitution that can permit a snake to go unkilled when the
+killing opportunity offers. It is just as natural for the lay
+brother to kill a chicken snake because it looks like a
+copperhead, or a hog-nosed blowing "viper" because it looks like a
+rattlesnake, as it is to shy at a gun that "may be loaded."
+
+To American plainsmen, the non-aggressive temper of the
+rattlesnake is well known, and it is also a positive asset. I
+never knew one who was nervously afraid while sleeping in the open
+that snakes would come and crawl into his bed, or mix up with his
+camp. Of course all frontiersmen kill rattlers, as a sort of
+bounden duty to society, but I once knew an eastern man to turn
+loose a rattlesnake that he had photographed, in the observance
+of his principle never to kill an animal whose picture he had
+taken. Subsequently it was gravely reported that one of the
+restive horses of the outfit had "accidentally" killed that
+rattler by stepping upon it.
+
+A Summary of Poisonous Snakes. There are about 300,000 poisonous
+snakes in the United States, and 110,000,000 people for them to
+bite; but more people are bitten by captive snakes than by wild
+ones.
+
+A fool and his snake are soon parted.
+
+There are 200,000 rattlesnakes in our country, but all of them
+will let you alone if you will let them alone.
+
+If your police record is clear, you can sleep safely in the sage-
+brush.
+
+If ever you need to camp in a cave, remember that in warm weather
+the rattlesnakes are all out hunting, and will not return until
+the approach of winter.
+
+The largest snakes of the world exist only in the human mind.
+
+The rattlesnake is a world-beater at minding his own business.
+
+Men do far more fighting per capita than any snakes yet
+discovered.
+
+The road to an understanding of the minds of serpents is long and
+difficult. Perhaps the best initial line of approach is through a
+well-stocked Reptile House. Having studied somewhat
+in that school I have emerged with a fixed belief that of all
+vertebrate creatures, snakes are the least understood, and also
+the most thoroughly misunderstood.
+
+[Illustration: A
+PEACE CONFERENCE WITH AN ARIZONA RATTLESNAKE "You let me alone and
+I won't harm you" (From "Camp-Fires on Desert and Lava")]
+
+[Illustration: HAWK-PROOF NEST OF A CACTUS WREN Placed in the
+centre of a tree choya cactus of Arizona and defended by 10 000
+hostile spines (From "Camp-Fires on Desert and Lava")]
+
+The world at large debits serpents with being far more quarrelsome
+and aggressive than they really are, and it credits them with
+knowing far less than they do know.
+
+Attitude of Snakes Toward Each Other. Toward each other, the
+members of the various serpent species are tolerant, patient and
+peaceful to the last degree. You may place together in one cage
+twenty big Texas rattlers, or twenty ugly cottonmouth moccasins
+from the Carolinas, a hundred garter snakes, twenty boa
+constrictors, or six big pythons, and if the various
+_species_ are kept separate there will be no fighting. You
+may stir them up to any reasonable extent, and make them keen to
+strike you, but they do not attack each other.
+
+There are, however, many species that will not mix together in
+peace. For example, the king snake of New Jersey hates the
+rattlesnake, no matter what his address may be. Being by habit a
+constrictor, the king snake at once winds himself tightly around
+the neck of the rattler,--and proceeds to choke him to death.
+
+The king cobra devours other snakes, as food, and wishes nothing
+else.
+
+The Gopher Snake. Some snakes that feel sure you will not harm
+them will permit you to handle them without a protest or a fight.
+The most spectacular example is the gopher snake of the
+southeastern United States. This handsome, lustrous, blue-black
+species is six feet long, shiny, and as clean and smooth as ivory.
+Its members are famous rat-killers. You can pick up a wild one
+wherever you find it, and it will not bite you. They do not at all
+object to being handled, even by timorous lady visitors who never
+before have touched a live snake; and in the South they are
+tolerated by farmers for the good they do as rat catchers.
+
+The Wisdom of a Big Python. Once I witnessed an example of snake
+intelligence on a large scale, which profoundly impressed me.
+
+A reticulated python about twenty-two feet long arrived from
+Singapore with its old skin dried down upon its body. The snake
+had been many weeks without a bath, and it had been utterly unable
+to shed its old skin on schedule time. It was necessary to remove
+all that dead epidermis, without delay.
+
+The great serpent, fully coiled, was taken out of its box, sprayed
+with warm water, and gently deposited on the gravel floor of our
+most spacious python apartment. Later on pails of warm water,
+sponges and forceps were procured, and five strong keepers were
+assembled for active service.
+
+The first step was to get the snake safely into the hands of the
+men, and fully under control. A stream of cold water from a hose
+was suddenly shot in a deluge upon the python's head, and while it
+was disconcerted and blinded by the flood, it was seized by the
+neck, close behind the head. Immediately the waiting keepers
+seized it by the body, from neck to tail, and straightened it out,
+to prevent coiling. Strong hands subdued its struggles, and
+without any violence stretched the writhing wild monster upon the
+floor.
+
+Then began the sponging and peeling process. The frightened snake
+writhed and resisted, probably feeling sure that its last hour had
+come. The men worked quietly, spoke soothingly, and the work
+proceeded successfully. With the lapse of time the serpent became
+aware of the fact that it was not to be harmed; for it became
+quiet, and lay still. At the same time, we all dreaded the crisis
+that we thought would come when the jaws and the head would be
+reached.
+
+By the time the head was reached, the snake lay perfectly passive.
+Beyond all doubt, it understood the game that was being played.
+
+Now, the epidermis of a snake covers the entire head, _including
+the eyes!_ And what would that snake do when the time came to
+remove the scales from its eyes and lips? It continued to lie
+perfectly still! When the pulling off of the old skin hurt the new
+skin underneath, the head flinched slightly, just as any hurt
+flesh will flinch by reflex action; but that was absolutely all.
+For a long hour or more, and even when the men pulled the dead
+scales from those eyes and lips, that strange creature made no
+resistance or protest. I have seen many people fight their doctors
+for less.
+
+That wild, newly-caught jungle snake quickly had recognized the
+situation, and acted its part with a degree of sense and
+appreciation that was astounding. I do not know of any _adult
+wild_ mammal that would have shown that kind and degree of
+wisdom under similar circumstances.
+
+Do Snakes "Charm" Birds? Sometimes a wild bird will sit still upon
+its nest while a big pilot blacksnake, or some other serpent
+equally bad, climbs up and poises its head before the motionless
+and terrified bird until at last the serpent seizes the bird to
+devour it. The bird victim really seems to be "charmed" by its
+enemy. If there were not some kind of a hypnotic spell cast over
+the bird, would it not fly away?
+
+I think this strange proceeding is easily explainable by any one
+with sufficient imagination to put himself in the bird's place. It
+is the rule of a sitting bird to sit tight, not to be scared off
+by trifles, and to take great risks rather than expose her eggs to
+cold and destruction. The ascent and approach of the serpent is
+absolutely noiseless. Not a leaf is stirred. The potential mother
+of a brood calmly sits with eyes half closed, at peace with all
+the world. Suddenly, and with a horrible shock, she discovers a
+deadly serpent's multi-fanged head and glittering eyes staring at
+her _within easy striking distance._
+
+The horrified mother bird feels that she is lost. She knows full
+well that with any movement to escape the serpent instantly will
+launch its attack. _Her one hope,_ and seemingly her only
+chance for life, is that _if she remains motionless_ the
+serpent will go its way without harming her. (Think of the
+thousands of helpless men, women and children who have hoped and
+acted similarly in the presence of bandits and hold-up men
+presenting loaded revolvers! But they were far from being
+"charmed.")
+
+The bird hopes, and sits still, _paralyzed with fear._ At its
+leisure the serpent strikes; and after a certain number of
+horrible minutes, all is over. I think there is no real "charm"
+exercised in the tragedy; but that there is on the part of the
+bird a paralysis of fear, which is in my opinion a well defined
+emotion, common in animals and in men. I have seen it in many
+animals.
+
+Snakes that Feign Death. The common hog-nosed snake, mistakenly
+called the "puff-adder" and blowing "viper" (_Heterodon
+platyrhinus_) of the New England states, often feigns death
+when it is caught in the open, and picked up. It will "play
+'possum" while you carry it by its tail, head downward, or hang
+its limp body over a fence. Of course it hopes to escape by its
+very clever ruse, and no doubt it often does so from the hands of
+inexperienced persons.
+
+Do Snakes Swallow Their Young? I _think_ not. A number of
+persons solemnly have declared that they have seen snakes do so,
+but no _herpetologist_ ever has seen an occurrence of that
+kind. I believe that all of the best authorities on serpents
+believe that snakes do not swallow their young. The theory of the
+pro-swallowists is that the mother snake takes her young into her
+interior to provide for their safety, and that they do not go as
+far down as the stomach. The anti-swallowists declare that the
+powerful digestive juices of the stomach of a snake would quickly
+kill any snakelets coming in contact with it; and I believe that
+this is true.
+
+At present the snake-swallowing theory must be ticketed "not
+proven," and is filed for further reference.
+
+The Hoop Snake Fable. There is no such thing as a "hoop-snake"
+save in the vivid imaginations of a very few men.
+
+The Intelligence of the King Cobra. Curator of Reptiles Raymond
+L. Ditmars regards the huge king cobra of the Malay Peninsula, the
+largest of all poisonous serpents, as quite the wisest serpent
+known to him. He says its mind is alert and responsive to a very
+unusual degree in serpents, and that it manifests a keen interest
+in everything that is going on around it, especially at feeding-
+time. This is quite the reverse of the usual sluggish and
+apathetic serpent mind in captivity.
+
+Incidentally, I would like very much to know just what our present
+twelve-foot cobra thought when, upon its arrival at its present
+home, its total blindness was relieved by the thrillingly skilful
+removal of the _two layers_ of dead scales that had closed
+over and finally adhered to each orbit.
+
+The vision of the king cobra is keen, and its temper is not easily
+ruffled. Its temperament seems to be sanguine, which is just the
+opposite of the nervous-combative hooded and spectacled cobra
+species.
+
+The So-called "Snake Charmers" of India. Herpetologists generally
+discredit the idea that a peripatetic Hindu can "charm" a cobra
+any farther or more quickly than any snake-keeper. In the first
+place, the fangs of the serpent are totally removed,--by a very
+savage and painful process. After that, the unfortunate snake is
+in no condition to fight or to flee. It seeks only to be let
+alone, and the musical-pipe business is to impress the mind of the
+observer.
+
+Serpent Psychology an Unplowed Field. At this date (1922) we know
+only the rudiments of serpent intelligence and temperament. In the
+wilds, serpents are most elusive and difficult to determine. In
+captivity they are passive and undemonstrative. We do not know how
+much memory they have, they rarely show what they think, and on
+most subjects we do not know where they stand. But the future will
+change all this. During the past twenty years the number of
+herpetologists in the United States has increased about tenfold.
+It is fairly impossible that serpent psychology should much longer
+remain unstudied, and unrevealed along the lines of plain common-
+sense.
+
+The Ways of Crocodiles. The ways of crocodiles are dark and deep;
+their thoughts are few and far between. Their wisdom is above that
+of the tortoises and turtles, but below that of the serpents. I
+have had field experience with four species of crocodilians in the
+New World and three in the Old. With but slight exceptions they
+all think alike and act alike.
+
+The great salt-water crocodile of the Malay Peninsula and Borneo
+is the only real man-eater I ever met. Except under the most
+provocative circumstances, all the others I have met are
+practically harmless to man. This includes the Florida species,
+the Orinoco crocodile, the little one from Cuba, the alligator,
+the Indian gavial and the Indian crocodile (_C. palustris_).
+
+The salt-water crocodile, that I have seen swimming out in the
+ocean two miles or more from shore, is in Borneo a voracious man-
+eater. It skilfully stalks its prey in the murky rivers where
+Malay and Dyak women and children come down to the village bathing
+place to dip up water and to bathe. There, unseen in the muddy
+water, the monster glides up stealthily, seizes his victim by the
+leg, and holding it tightly backs off into deep water and
+disappears. The victims are drowned, not bitten to death.
+
+I found in Ceylon that the Indian crocodile is a shameless
+cannibal, devouring the skinned carcasses of its relatives
+whenever an opportunity offered.
+
+The Florida crocodile is the shrewdest species of all those I know
+personally. It has the strange habit of digging out deep and
+spacious burrows for concealment, in the perpendicular sandy
+banks of southern Florida rivers where the deep water comes right
+up to the shore. Starting well under low-water mark, the crock
+digs in the yielding sand, straight into the bank, a roomy
+subterranean chamber. In this snug retreat he once was safe from
+all his enemies,--until the fatal day when his secret was
+discovered, and revealed to a grasping world. Since that time, the
+Alligator Joes of Palm Beach and Miami have made a business of
+personally conducting parties of northern visitors, at $50 per
+catch, to witness the adventure of catching a nine-foot crocodile
+alive. The dens are located by probing the sand with long iron
+rods. A rope noose is set over the den's entrance, and when all is
+ready, a confederate probes the crocodile out of its den and into
+the fatal noose.
+
+Today the Florida crocodile is so nearly extinct that it required
+two years of diligent inquiry to produce one live specimen subject
+to purchase.
+
+Common Sense in the Common Toad. Last spring, in planting a lot of
+trees on our lawn, a round tree-hole that stood for several days
+unoccupied finally accumulated about a dozen toads. Its two feet
+of straight depth was unscalable, and when finally discovered the
+toads were tired of their imprisonment. Partly as a test of their
+common-sense, Mr. George T. Fielding placed a six-inch board in
+the hole, at an angle of about thirty degrees, but fairly leading
+out of the trap.
+
+In very quick time the toads recognized the possibilities of the
+inclined plane and hopped upward to liberty. In the use of this
+opportunity they showed more wisdom than our mountain sheep
+manifest concerning the same kind of an improvement designed to
+enable them to reach the roof of their building. XVII
+
+THE TRAINING OF WILD ANIMALS
+
+Before we enter this chapter let us pause a moment on the
+threshold, and consider the logic of animal training and
+performances.
+
+Logic is only another name for reason. Its reverse side is
+fanaticism; and that way madness lies. It is the duty of every
+sane man and woman to consider the cold logic of every question
+affecting the welfare of man and nature. Fanaticism when carried
+to extremes can become a misdemeanor or a crime. The soft-hearted
+fanaticism of humanics that saves a brutal murderer, or would-be
+murderer like Berkman, from the gallows or the chair, and
+eventually turns him loose to commit more crimes against innocent
+people, is not only wrong, and wicked, but in aggravated cases it
+is a _crime_ against society.
+
+Just now there is a tiny wave of agitation against all
+performances of trained wild animals, and the keeping of animals
+in captivity, on the ground that all this is "cruel" and inhumane.
+The Jacklondon Society of Boston is working hard to get up steam
+for this crusade, but thus far with only partial success. Its
+influence is confined to a very small area.
+
+Now, what is the truth of this matter? Is it true that trained
+wild animals are cruelly abused in the training, or in compelling
+them to perform? Is it true that in making animals perform on the
+stage, or in the circus ring, their rights are wickedly infringed?
+Is it the duty of the American people to stop all performances by
+animals? Is it wicked to make wild animals, or cats and dogs,
+_work_ for a living, as men and women do? Is it true that
+captive animals in zoological parks and gardens are miserable and
+unhappy, and that all such institutions should be "abolished?"
+What is truth?
+
+In the first place, there is no sound reasoning or logic in
+assuming that the persons of animals, tame or wild, are any more
+sacred than those of men, women and children. We hold that it is
+no more "cruelty" for an ape or a dog to work in training quarters
+or on the stage than it is for men, women and young people to work
+as acrobats, or actors, or to engage in honest toil eight hours
+per day. Who gave to any warm-blooded animal that consumes food
+and requires shelter the right to live without work? _No
+one!_ I am sure that no trained bear of my acquaintance ever
+had to work as hard for his food and shelter as does the average
+bear out in the wilds. In order to find enough to eat the latter
+is compelled to hustle hard from dawn till dark. I have seen that
+the Rocky Mountain grizzly feels forced to dig a big hole three
+feet deep in hard, rocky ground, to get one tiny ground squirrel
+the size of a chipmunk,--and weighing only eight or nine ounces.
+Now, has he anything "on" the performing bear? Decidedly not.
+
+I regard the sentimental Jacklondon idea, that no wild animal
+should be made to work on the stage or in the show-ring, as
+illogical and absurd. Human beings who sanely work are much
+happier per capita than those who do nothing but loaf and grouch.
+I have worked, horse-hard, throughout all the adult years of my
+life; and it has been good for me. I know that it is no more wrong
+or wicked for a horse to work for his living,--of course on a
+humane basis,--either on the stage or on the street, than it is
+for a coal-carrier, a foundryman, a farmer, a bookkeeper, a school
+teacher or a housewife to do the day's work.
+
+The person of a wild animal is no more sacred than is that of a
+man or woman. A sound whack for an unruly elephant, bear or horse
+is just as helpful as it is for an unruly boy who needs to be
+shown that order is heaven's first law.
+
+In the presence of the world's toiling and sweating millions, in
+the presence of millions of children in the home sweat-shops and
+factories working their little lives out for their daily crust and
+a hard bed, what shall we think and say of the good, kind-hearted
+people who are spending time and energy in crusading against
+trained animal performances?
+
+The vast majority of performing animals are trained by humane men
+and women, practicing kindness to the utmost; and they are the
+last persons in the world who would be willing to have their
+valuable stock roughly handled, neglected or in any manner cruelly
+treated.
+
+So far as zoological parks and gardens are concerned, they are no
+more in need of defense than the Rocky Mountains.
+
+Every large zoological park is a school of wild-animal education
+and training; and it is literally a continuous performance. Let
+no one suppose that there is no training of wild beasts save for
+the circus ring and the vaudeville stage. Of the total number of
+large and important mammals that come into our zoological parks,
+the majority of them actually are trained to play becomingly their
+respective parts. An intractable and obstinate animal soon becomes
+a nuisance.
+
+The following, named in the order of their importance, are the
+species whose zoological park training is a matter of necessity:
+Elephants, bears, apes, hippopotami, rhinoceroses, giraffes,
+bison, musk-ox, wild sheep, goats and deer, African antelopes,
+wild swine, and wild horses, asses and zebras. Of large birds the
+most conspicuous candidates for training in park life are the
+ostriches, emus, cassowaries, cranes, pelicans, swans, egrets and
+herons, geese, ducks, pheasants, macaws and cockatoos, curassows,
+eagles and vultures. Among the reptiles, the best trained are the
+giant tortoises, the pythons, boas, alligators, crocodiles,
+iguanas and gopher snakes.
+
+Each one of these species is educated (1) to be peaceful, and not
+attack their keepers; (2) to not fear their keepers; (3) to do as
+they are bid about going here or there; (4) to accept and eat the
+food that is provided for them, and (5) finally, in some cases to
+"show off" a little when commanded, for the benefit of visitors.
+
+All this training comes in the regular course of our daily work,
+and there are few animals who do not respond to it. The necessity
+for training is most imperative with the elephants and bears, for
+without it the difficulties in the management of those dangerous
+animals is greatly intensified.
+
+In training an animal to do a particular act not in the routine of
+his daily life, it is of course necessary to show him clearly and
+pointedly what is desired. I think that in quickness of
+perception, and ability to adopt a new idea, the elephants and
+the great apes are tied for first place. Both are remarkably
+quick. It seems to me that it required only half a dozen lessons
+to teach our Indian elephant, Gunda, to take a penny in his trunk,
+lift the lid of a high-placed box, drop in the coin, then pull a
+bell-cord and ring a bell. Of course the reward for the first
+successful performances was lumps of sugar. Within three days this
+rather interesting special exhibit was working smoothly, and
+coining money. As a means of working off on the poor animal great
+numbers of foreign copper coins, and spurious issues of all kinds,
+it was a great boon to the foreign population of New York. Our
+erratic elephant Alice was quickly trained by Keeper Richards to
+blow a mouth organ, to ring a telephone by turning the crank, and
+to take off the receiver and hold it up to her ear for an
+imaginary call.
+
+Another keeper, with no previous experience as a trainer, taught a
+male orang-utan called Rajah to go through a series of
+performances that are elsewhere described.
+
+Bright and Dull Individuals. Every wild animal species contains
+the same range of bright and dull individuals that are found in
+the various races of men. Naturally the animal trainer selects for
+training only those animals that are of amiable disposition, that
+mentally are alert, responsive and possessed of good memories. The
+worst mistakes they make are in taking on and forcing ill-natured
+and irritable animals, that hate training and performing. Often a
+trainer persists in retaining an animal that resolutely should be
+thrown out. Captain Bonavita lost his arm solely because of his
+fatal persistence in retaining in his group of lions an animal
+that hated him, and which the trainer well knew was dangerous.
+
+While nearly every wild animal can be taught a few simple tricks,
+the dull mind soon reaches its constitutional limit. Even among
+the great apes, conditions are quite the same. One half the orang-
+utans are of the thin-headed, pin-headed type that is hopeless for
+stage training. The good ones are the stocky, round-headed, round-
+faced individuals who have the cephalic index of the statesman or
+jurist, and a broad and well-rounded dome of thought.
+
+Training for the Ring and the Stage. During his long and
+successful career as a purveyor of wild animals for all purposes,
+Carl Hagenbeck had great success in the production of large
+animal groups trained for stage performances. I came in close
+touch with his methods and their results. His methods were very
+simple, and they were founded on kindness and common sense. Mr.
+Hagenbeck hated whips and punishments. When an animal could not
+get on without them, it was dropped from the cast. His working
+theory was that an unwilling animal makes a bad actor.
+
+There is no mystery about the best methods in training animals,
+wild or domestic. The first thing is to assemble a suitable number
+of _young_ animals, all of which are mentally bright and
+physically sound. Most adult animals are impracticable, and often
+impossible, because they are set in their ways. The elephants are
+monumental exceptions. A large, well-lighted and sunny room is
+provided; and around it are the individual cages for the student
+animals. The members of the company are fed wisely and well, kept
+scrupulously clean, and in all ways made comfortable and
+contented. When not at their work they are allowed to romp and
+play together until they are tired of the exercise.
+
+The trainer who has been selected to create a specified group
+spends practically his entire time with his pupils. He feeds them,
+and mixes with them daily and hourly. From the beginning he
+teaches them that _they must obey him, and not fight._
+The work of training begins with simple  things, and goes on
+to the complex; and each day the same routine is carried out.
+To each animal is assigned a certain place in the circle, with
+a certain tub or platform on which to sit at ease when not
+acting in the ring. It is exceedingly droll to see a dozen cub
+lions, tigers, bears and cheetahs sitting decorously on their
+respective tubs and gravely watching the thirteenth cub who
+is being labored with by the keeper to bring its ideas and acts
+into line. The stage properties are many; and they all assist in
+helping the actors to remember the sequence of their acts, as well
+as the things to be done. The key that controls the mind of a good
+animal is the reward idea. Many a really bad animal goes through
+its share of the performance solely to secure the bit of meat, the
+lump of sugar or the prized biscuit that never fails to show up at
+the proper moment.
+
+[Illustration with caption: WORK ELEPHANT DRAGGING A HEWN TIMBER
+The most primitive form of elephant harness. The end of the drag
+rope is held between the teeth of the wise and patient animal
+(From A. G. R. Theobald, Mysore)]
+
+The acts to be performed are gone over in the training quarters,
+innumerable times; and this continues so long that by the time the
+"group" is ready for the stage, behold! the cubs with which the
+patient and tireless trainer began have grown so large that to the
+audience they now seem like adult and savage animals. Those who
+scoff at the wild animal mind, and say that all this displays
+nothing but "machines in fur" need to be reminded that this very
+same line of effort in training and rehearsal is absolutely
+necessary in the production of every military company, every
+ballet, and every mass performance on the stage. There is
+_no_ successful performance without training. Boys and girls
+require the very same sort of handling that the wild animals
+receive, but the humans do with a little less of it.
+
+The man who flouts a good stage performance by wild animals on the
+ground that it reveals "no thought," and is only "imitation," is,
+in my judgment, a very short-sighted student. Maniacs and
+imbeciles cannot be trained to perform any program fit to be seen.
+I saw that tried fifty years ago, in "the wild Australian
+children," who were idiots. _The performer must think, and
+reason._
+
+Of the many groups of trained animals that I have seen in
+performances, my mind goes back first to the one which contained
+a genuine bear comedian, of the Charlie Chaplin type. It was a
+Himalayan black bear, with fine side whiskers, and it really
+seemed to me absolutely certain that the other animals in the
+group appreciated and enjoyed the fun that comedian made. He
+pretended to be awkward, and frequently fell off his tub. He was
+purposely dilatory, and was often the last one to finish. The
+other animals seemed to be fascinated by his mishaps, and they sat
+on their tubs and watched him with what looked like genuine
+amusement. I remember another circle of seated animals who calmly
+and patiently sat and watched while the trainer labored with a
+cross and refractory leopard, to overcome its stubbornness, and to
+make it do its part.
+
+Carl Hagenbeck loved to produce mixed groups of dangerous
+animals,--lions, tigers, leopards, bears and wolves. One trainer
+whom I knew was assisted in a highly dangerous group by a noble
+stag-hound who habitually kept close to his master, and was said
+to be ready to attack instantly any animal that might attack the
+trainer. I never saw a finer bodyguard than that dog.
+
+In 1908 the most astounding animal group ever turned out of the
+Hagenbeck establishment, or shown on any stage, appeared in
+London. It consisted of _75 full-grown polar bears!_ Now,
+polar bears, either for the cage or the stage, are bad citizens.
+Instinctively I always suspect their mental reservations, and for
+twenty-one years have carefully kept our keepers out of their
+reach. But Mr. William Hagenbeck, brother of the great Carl,
+actually trained and performed with a huge _herd_ of
+dangerous polars to the number stated.
+
+In the _Strand_ magazine for April, 1908, there is a fine
+article by Arthur Harold about this group and its production. It
+says that the bears were obtained when seven or eight months old,
+in large lots, and all thrown in together. It took a keeper
+between seven and eight months to educate them out of their savage
+state,--by contact, kindness, sugar and fruit,--and then they were
+turned over to the trainer, Mr. Hagenbeck. They were taught to
+form pyramids, climb ladders, shoot the chutes, ride in pony
+carriages, draw and ride in sleds, drink from bottles, and work a
+see-saw. Various individuals did individual tricks. The star
+performer was Monk, the wrestling bear, who went with his trainer
+through a fearsome wrestling performance.
+
+Concerning the temperament of that polar bear group Mr. William
+Hagenbeck said:
+
+"Although I know every animal in the company, have taught each one
+to recognize me, and have been among many of them for _fifteen
+years,_ I can not now tell by their expressions the moods of
+the animals. This is one of the characteristics of the polar bear.
+Their expression remains the same, and it is impossible to detect
+by watching their faces whether they are pleased or cross. Now in
+most wild animals, such as the lion, you can tell by the
+expression of the beast's face and by its actions whether it is in
+a good temper or not.... The truth is, the polar bear is a most
+awkward beast to train. In the first place its character is
+difficult to understand. He is by nature very suspicious, and
+without the least warning is apt to turn upon his trainer. Among
+the seventy bears that have been taught to do tricks, _only
+two_ of them are really fond of their work."
+
+In the end, Mr. William Hagenbeck was very nearly killed by one of
+these polar bears. I was with Carl Hagenbeck a few hours after he
+received telegraphic news of the tragedy, and his bitterness
+against those polar bears was boundless. I understood that Monk,
+the wrestling bear, was the assailant,--which was small cause for
+wonder. When I saw Mr. Hagenbeck's polar bear show, it gave me
+shivers of fear. The first two big male polars that we installed
+at our Park came from that very group, and one of them led us into
+a dreadful tragedy, with a female bear as the victim.
+
+The So-Called "Trick" Performances. Some psychologists make light
+of what they call "trick performances," in which the performing
+animals are guided by signs, or signals, or spoken commands from
+their trainers. I have never been able to account for this. It is
+incontestably true that dull and stupid animals can learn little,
+and perform less. For example, all the training in the world could
+not suffice to put a pig through a performance that a chimpanzee
+or orang could master in two weeks. The reason is that the pig has
+not the brain power that is indispensable. A woodchuck never could
+become the mental equal of a wood rat (_Neotoma_). A sheep
+could not hope to rival a horse, either in training or in
+execution.
+
+Really, _the brain, the memory and reason must enter into every
+animal performance that amounts to anything worth while._ It is
+just as sensible to flout soldiers on the drill-ground as to wave
+aside as of no account a troup of trained lions or sea-lions on
+the stage. Any animal that can be taught to perform difficult
+feats, and that delivers the goods in the blinding glare and riot
+of the circus ring or the stage footlights, is entitled to my
+profound respect for its powers of mind and nerve.
+
+The Sea-Lion's Repertoire. Long ago trainers recognized in the
+California sea-lion (_Zalophus_) a good subject for the ring
+and stage. Its long, supple neck, its lithe body and brilliant
+nervous energy seemed good for difficult acts. The sea-lion takes
+very kindly to training, and really delights in its performances.
+In fact, it enters into its performance with a keen vigor and zest
+that is pleasing to behold. Let this veracious record of a
+performance of Treat's five sea-lions and two harbor seals, that I
+witnessed October 15, 1910, tell the whole story, in order that
+the reader may judge for himself:
+
+1. Each sea-lion balanced upright on its nose a wooden staff 3
+feet long, with a round knob on its upper end.
+
+2. Each sea-lion caught in its mouth a three-foot stick with a
+ball on each end, tossed it up, whirled it in the air, and caught
+it again. This was repeated, without a miss.
+
+3. Each sea-lion balanced on the tip of its nose, first a ball
+like a baseball, then a large ball two feet in diameter.
+
+4. Each sea-lion climbed a double ladder of eight steps, and went
+down on the other side, _balancing a large ball on the end of
+its nose, without a miss._
+
+5. The trainer handed a ball to the sea-lion nearest him, who
+balanced it on his nose, walked with it to his box and climbed up.
+
+6. Then another sea-lion walked over to him, and waited
+expectantly until sea-lion No. 1 tossed the ball to No. 2, who
+caught it on his nose, walked over to his box, climbed up, and
+presently tossed it to No. 3.
+
+7. A silk hat was balanced on its rim.
+
+8. A seal carrying a balanced ball scrambled upon a cylindrical
+basket and rolled it across the arena, after which other seals
+repeated the performance.
+
+9. In the last act a flaming torch was balanced, tossed about,
+caught and whirled, and finally returned to the trainer, still
+blazing.
+
+Trained Horses. By carefully selecting the brightest and most
+intelligent horses that can be found, it is possible for a trainer
+to bring together and educate a group that will go through a fine
+performance in public. However, some exhibitions of trained
+horses are halting, ragged and poor. I have seen only one that
+stands out in my records as superlatively fine,--for horses. That
+was known to the public when I saw it as Bartholomew's "Equine
+Paradox," and it contained twelve wonderfully trained horses. My
+record of this fine performance fills seven pages of a good-sized
+notebook. While it is too long to reproduce here entire, it can at
+least be briefly described. The trainer called his group a
+"school," and of it he said:
+
+"While I do not say that any one horse knows the meaning of from
+300 to 400 words, I claim that _as a whole_ the school does
+know that number."
+
+The performance was fairly bewildering; but by diligent work I
+recorded the whole of it. Various horses did various things. They
+fetched chairs, papers, hats and coats; opened desks, rang bells,
+came when called, bowed, knelt, and erased figures from a
+blackboard. They danced a waltz, a clog dance, a figure-8; they
+marched, halted, paced, trotted, galloped, backed, jumped, leaped
+over each other, performed with a barrel, a see-saw and a double
+see-saw. Their marching and drilling would have been creditable to
+a platoon of rookies.
+
+In performing, every horse is handicapped by his lack of hands and
+plant grade feet; and the horse memory is not very sure or
+certain. More than any other animal, the horse depends upon the
+trainer's command, and in poor performances the command often
+requires to be repeated, two or three times, or more. The memory
+of the horse is not nearly so quick nor so certain as that of the
+chimpanzee or elephant.
+
+Dr. Martin J. Potter, of New York, famous trainer of stage and
+movie animals, states that of all animals, wild or domestic, the
+horse is the most intelligent; but I doubt whether he ever trained
+any chimpanzees. Speaking from out of the abundance of his
+training experience with many species of animals except the great
+apes, Dr. Potter says that "the seal [i. e. California sea-lion]
+learns its stage cues more easily than any other mute performer.
+The horse, however, is the most intelligent of all animals in its
+grasp and understanding of the work it has learned to perform, and
+in its reliable faithfulness and memory." Dr. Potter holds that
+of wild animals the tiger, owing to its treachery and ferocity, is
+the most difficult wild animal to train; the lion is the most
+reliable, and the most stupid of all animals is the pig.
+
+The Taming of Boma. A keeper for a short time in our place, named
+D'Osta, once did a very neat piece of work in taming a savage and
+intractable chimpanzee. When Boma came to us, fresh from the
+French Congo, he was savage and afraid. He retreated to the
+highest resting-place of his cage, came down only at night for his
+meals, and would make no compromise. We believed that he had been
+fearfully abused by his former owners, and through mistreatment
+had acquired both fear and hatred of all men.
+
+After the lapse of several months with Boma on that basis, the
+situation grew tiresome and intolerable. So D'Osta said:
+
+"I must tame that animal, and teach him not to be afraid of us."
+
+He introduced a roomy shifting cage into Boma's compartment,
+fixed the drop door, and for many days served Boma's food and
+water in that cage only. For two weeks the ape eluded capture, but
+eventually the keeper caught him. At first Boma's rage and fear
+were boundless; but presently the idea dawned upon his mind that
+he was not to be killed immediately. D'Osta handed him excellent
+food and water, twice a day, spoke to him soothingly, and
+otherwise let him alone. Slowly Boma's manner changed. He learned
+that he was not to be hurt, nor even annoyed. Confidence in the
+men about him began to come to him. His first signs of
+friendliness were promptly met and cultivated.
+
+At the end of ten days, D'Osta opened the sliding door, and Boma
+walked out, a wiser and better ape. His bad temper and his fears
+were gone. He trusted his keeper, and cheerfully obeyed him.
+Strangest of all, he even suffered D'Osta to put a collar upon
+him, and chain him to the front bars to curb his too great
+playfulness while his cage was being cleaned.
+
+Boma's fear of man has never returned. Now, although he is big and
+dangerous, he is a perfectly normal ape.
+
+The Training of an Over-Age Bear. A bear-trainer-athlete and
+"bear-wrestler" named Jacob Glass once taught me a lesson that
+astounded me. It related to the training of a bear that I thought
+was too old to be trained.
+
+We had an Alaskan cinnamon bear, three years old, that had been
+christened "Christian," at Skagway, because it stood so much
+pestering without flying into rages, as the grizzly did. After a
+short time with us, the concrete floors of our bear dens reacted
+upon the soles of its feet so strangely and so seriously that we
+were forced to transfer the animal to a temporary cage that had a
+wooden floor. While I was wondering what to do with that bear,
+along came Mr. Glass, anxious and unhappy.
+
+"My wrestling bear has died on me," he said, "and I've got to get
+another. You have got one that I would like to buy from you. It's
+the one you call Christian."
+
+Very kindly I said, "That is a mighty fine bear, as to temper; but
+now he is entirely too old to train, and you couldn't do anything
+with him. He would be a loss to you."
+
+"I've looked him over, and I like his looks. I think I can train
+him all right. You let me have him, and I'll make a fine performer
+of him."
+
+"I know that you never can do it; but you may try him, and send
+him back when you fail."
+
+Thus ended the first lesson; and I was sure that in a month Mr.
+Glass would beg me to take back the untrainable animal.
+
+About one year later Glass appeared again, jubilant. At once he
+broke forth into eulogies of Christian; but one chapter would not
+be large enough to contain them. He had trained that bear, with
+outrageous ease and celerity, and hadimmediately taken him upon
+the stage as a professional jiu-jitsu wrestler. And really, the
+act was admirable. As a wrestler, the bear seemed almost as
+intelligent as the man. He knew the "left-hand half-nelson" as well
+as Glass, and he knew the following words, perfectly: "Right,
+left, half-nelson, strangle, head up, nose under arm, and
+hammer-lock."
+
+[Illustration with caption: THE WRESTLING BEAR "CHRISTIAN" AND HIS
+PARTNER]
+
+Glass declared that this bear was more intelligent than any lion,
+or any other trained animal ever seen by him. He was wise in many
+ways besides wrestling,--in his friendship with Glass, with other
+bears, with other men, and with a dog. _He obeyed all orders
+willingly,_ even permitting Glass to take his food away when he
+was eating; but he would not stand being punished with a whip or
+a stick! In response to that he would bite. However, he generously
+permitted himself to be _held down and choked, as a
+punishment,_ after which he would be very repentant, and would
+insist upon getting into his partner's lap,--to show his good
+will.
+
+Glass was enthusiastically certain that Christian could reason
+independently from cause to effect. He declared that his alertness
+of mind was so pronounced it was very rarely necessary to show him
+a second time how to do a given thing.
+
+Training an Adult Savage Monkey. Once we had a number of Japanese
+red-faced monkeys, and one of the surplus adult males had a temper
+as red as his face. Mr. Wormwood, an exhibitor of performing
+monkeys, wished to buy that animal; but I declined to sell it, on
+the ground that it would be impossible to train it.
+
+At that implied challenge the trainer perked up and insisted upon
+having that particular bad animal; so we yielded. He wished him
+for the special business of turning somersaults, because he had no
+tail to interfere with that performance.
+
+Two months later Mr. Wormwood appeared again. "Yes," he said, but
+not boastfully, "_I trained him;_ but I came mighty near to
+giving him up as a bad job. He was the hardest subject I ever
+tackled; but I conquered him at last, and now he is working all
+right."
+
+A really great number of different kinds of animals have been
+trained for stage performances, running the scale all the way up
+from fleas to elephants. It is easy to recall mice, rats, rabbits,
+squirrels, parrots, macaws, cockatoos, crows, chickens, geese,
+cats, pigs, dogs, monkeys, baboons, apes, bears, seals, sea-lions,
+walruses, kangaroos, horses, hippopotami and elephants. It is a
+large subject, and its many details are full of interest. It is
+impossible to discuss here all these species and breeds.
+
+In concluding these notes I leave off as I began,--with the
+statement that any student of animal psychology who for any reason
+whatever ignores or undervalues the intelligence of trained
+animals puts a handicap upon himself.
+
+
+
+
+III. THE HIGHER PASSIONS
+
+XVIII
+
+THE MORALS OF WILD ANIMALS
+
+
+The ethics and morals of men and animals are thoroughly
+comparative, and it is only by direct comparisons that they can be
+analyzed and classified. It is quite possible that there are quite
+a number of intelligent men and women who are not yet aware of the
+fact that wild animals _have_ moral codes, and that on an
+average they live up to them better than men do to theirs.
+
+It is a painful operation to expose the grinning skeletons in the
+closets of the human family, but in no other way is it possible
+to hold a mirror up to nature. With all our brightness and all our
+talents,--real and imitation,--few men ever stop to ask what our
+horses, dogs and cats think of our follies and our wickedness.
+
+By the end of the year 1921 the annual total of human wickedness
+had reached staggering proportions. From August 1914 to November
+1918 the moral standing of the human race reached the lowest depth
+it ever sounded since the days of the cave-dwellers. This we know
+to be true, because of the increase in man's capacity for
+wickedness, and its crop of results. After what we recently have
+seen in Europe and Asia, and on the high seas, let no man speak of
+a monster in human form as "a brute;" for so far as moral standing
+is concerned, some of the animals allegedly "below man" now are in
+a position to look down upon him.
+
+It is a cold and horrid fact that today, all around us, and
+sometimes close at hand, men are committing a long list of
+revolting crimes such as even the most debased and cruel beasts of
+the field _never_ commit. I refer to wanton wholesale murder,
+often with torture; assault with violence, robbery in a hundred
+cruel forms, and a dozen unmentionable crimes invented by
+degenerate man and widely practiced. If anyone feels that this
+indictment is too strong, I can cite a few titles that will be
+quite sufficient for my case.
+
+Let us make a few comparisons between the human species (_Homo
+sapiens_) and the so-called "lower" wild animals; and let it be
+understood that the author testifies, in courtroom phrase, only
+"to the best of his information and belief."
+
+Only two wild animal species known to me,--wolves and crocodiles,
+--devour their own kind; but many of the races of men have been
+cannibals, and some are so today.
+
+Among free wild animals, the cruel abuse or murder of children by
+their parents, or by other adults of the tribe, is unknown; but in
+all the "civilized" races of men infanticide and child murder are
+frightfully common crimes. In 1921 a six-year-old Eskimo girl,
+whose father and mother had been murdered, was strangled by her
+relatives, because she had no visible means of support.
+
+The murder of the aged and helpless among wild animals is almost
+unknown; but among both the savage and the civilized races of men
+it is quite common. Our old acquaintance, Shack-Nasty Jim, the
+Modoc Indian, tomahawked his own mother because she hindered his
+progress; but many persons in and around New York have done worse
+than that.
+
+Civil war between the members of a wild animal species is a thing
+unknown in the annals of wild-animal history; but among men it is
+an every-day occurrence.
+
+Among _free_ animals it is against the moral and ethical
+codes of all species of vertebrates for the strong to bully and
+oppress the weak; but it is almost everywhere a common rule of
+action with about ten per cent of the human race.
+
+The members of a wild animal species are in honor bound not to rob
+one another, but with 25 per cent of the men of all civilized
+races, robbery, and the desire to get something for nothing, are
+ruling passions. No wild animals thus far known and described
+practice sex crimes; but the less said of the races of men on this
+subject, the better for our feelings.
+
+Among animals, save in the warfare of carnivorous animals for
+their daily food, there are no exterminatory wars between species,
+and even local wars over territory are of very rare occurrence.
+Among men, the territorial wars of tribes and nations are
+innumerable, they have been from the earliest historic times, and
+they are certain to continue as long as this earth is inhabited by
+man. The "end of war" between the grasping nations of this earth
+is an iridescent dream, because of the inextinguishable jealousy
+and meanness of nations; but it is well to reduce them to a
+minimum. Nations like Germany, Bulgaria, Turkey and Russia will
+never stand hitched for any long periods. Their peace-loving
+neighbors need to keep their weapons well oiled and polished, and
+indulge in no hallucinations of a millenium upon this wicked
+earth.
+
+In the mating season, there is fighting in many wild animal
+species between the largest and finest male individuals for the
+honor of overlordship in increasing and diffusing the species.
+These encounters are most noticeable in the various species of the
+deer family, because the fatal interlocking of antlers
+occasionally causes the death of both contestants. We have in our
+National Collection of Heads and Horns sets of interlocked antlers
+of moose, caribou, mule deer and white-tailed deer.
+
+Otherwise than from the accidental interlocking of antlers,--due
+to the fact that an animal can push forward with far greater force
+than it can pull back,--I have never seen, heard or read of a wild
+animal having been _killed_ outright in a fight over the
+possession of females. Fur seal and Stellar sea-lion bulls, and
+big male orang-utans, frequently are found badly scarified by
+wounds received in fighting during the breeding season, but of
+actual deaths we have not heard.
+
+The first law of the jungle is: "Live, and let live."
+
+Leaving out of account the carnivorous animals who must kill or
+die, _all the wild vertebrate species of the earth have learned
+the logic that peace promotes happiness, prosperity and long
+life._ This fundamentally useful knowledge governs not only the
+wild animal individual, but also the tribe, the species, and
+contiguous species.
+
+Do the brown bears and grizzlies of Alaska wage war upon each
+other, species against species? By no means. It seems reasonably
+certain that those species occasionally intermarry. Do the big
+sea-lions and the walruses seek to drive away or exterminate the
+neighboring fur seals or the helpless hair seals? Such warfare is
+absolutely unknown. Do the moose and caribou of Alaska and Yukon
+Territory attack the mountain sheep and goats? Never. Does the
+Indian elephant attack the gaur, the sambar, the axis deer or the
+muntjac? The idea is preposterous. Does any species of giraffe,
+zebra, antelope or buffalo attack any other species on the same
+crowded plains of British East Africa? If so, we have yet to learn
+of it.
+
+If the races and nations of men were as peace-loving, honest and
+sensible in avoiding wars as all the wild animal species are, then
+would we indeed have a social heaven upon earth.
+
+Now, tell me, ye winged winds that blow from the four corners of
+the earth and over the seven seas, whence came the Philosophy of
+Peace to the world's wild animals? Did they learn it by observing
+the ways of man? "It is to laugh," says the innkeeper. Man has not
+yet learned it himself; and therefore do we find the beasts of
+the field a lap ahead of the quarrelsome biped who has assumed
+dominion over them.
+
+Day by day we read in our newspapers of men and women who are
+moral lepers and utterly unfit to associate with horses, dogs,
+cats, deer and elephants. Our big male chimpanzee, Father Boma,
+who knows no wife but Suzette, and firmly repels the blandishments
+of his neighbor Fanny, is a more moral individual than many a
+pretty gentleman whose name we see heading columns of divorce
+proceedings in the newspapers.
+
+Said the Count to Julia in "The Hunchback," "Dost thou like the
+picture, dearest?" As a natural historian, it is our task to hew
+to the line, and let the chips fall where they will.
+
+Among the wild animals there are but few degenerate and unmoral
+species. In some very upright species there are occasionally
+individual lapses from virtue. A famous case in point is the rogue
+elephant, who goes from meanness to meanness until he becomes
+unbearable. Then he is driven out of the herd; he becomes an
+outcast and a bandit, and he upsets carts, maims bullocks, tears
+down huts and finally murders natives until the nearest local
+sahib gets after him, and ends his career with a bullet through
+his wicked brain.
+
+In my opinion the gray wolf of North America (like his congener in
+the Old World) is the most degenerate and unmoral mammal species
+on earth. He murders his wounded packmates, he is a greedy
+cannibal, he will attack his wife and chew her unmercifully. On
+the other hand, his one redeeming trait is that he helps to rear
+the pups,--when they are successfully defended from him by their
+mother!
+
+The wolverine makes a specialty of devilish and uncanny cunning
+and energy in destroying the property of man. Trappers have told
+us that when a wolverine invades a trapper's cabin in his absence,
+he destroys very nearly its entire contents. The food that he can
+neither eat nor carry away he defiles in such a manner that the
+hungriest man is unable to eat it. This seems to be a trait of
+this species only,--among wild animals; but during the recent war
+it was asserted that similar acts were committed by soldiers in
+the captured and occupied villas of northern France.
+
+The domestication of the dog has developed a new type of animal
+criminal. The sheep-killing dog is in a class by himself. The wild
+dog hunts in the broad light of day, often running down game by
+the relay system. The sheep-killing dog is a cunning night
+assassin, a deceiver of his master, a shrewd hider of criminal
+evidence, a sanctimonious hypocrite by day but a bloody-minded
+murderer under cover of darkness. Sometimes his cunning is almost
+beyond belief. Now, can anyone tell us how much of this particular
+evolution is due to the influence of Man upon Dog through a
+hundred generations of captivity and association? Has the dog
+learned from man the science of moral banditry, the best methods
+for the concealment of evidence, and how to dissemble?
+
+Elsewhere a chapter is devoted to the crimes of wild animals; but
+the great majority of the cases cited were found among _captive_
+animals, where abnormal conditions produced exceptional results.
+The crimes of captive animals are many, but the crimes of free wild
+animals are comparatively few. Whenever we disturb the delicate
+and precise balance of nature we may expect abnormal results.
+
+
+
+
+XIX
+
+THE LAWS OF THE FLOCKS AND THE HERDS
+
+
+Through a thousand generations of breeding and living under
+natural conditions, and of self-maintenance against enemies and
+evil conditions, the wild flocks and herds of beasts and birds
+have evolved a short code of community laws that make for their
+own continued existence.
+
+And they do more than that. When free from the evil influences of
+man, those flock-and-herd laws promote, and actually produce,
+peace, prosperity and happiness. This is no fantastic theory of
+the friends of animals. It is a fact, just as evident to the
+thinking mind as the presence of the sun at high noon.
+
+The first wild birds and quadrupeds found themselves beset by
+climatic conditions of various degrees and kinds of rigor and
+destructive power. In the torrid zone it took the form of
+excessive rain and humidity, excessive heat, or excessive dryness
+and aridity. In the temperate and frigid zones, life was a
+seasonal battle with bitter cold, torrents of cold rain in early
+winter or spring, devastating sleet, and deep snow and ice that
+left no room for argument.
+
+At the same time, the species that were not predatory found
+themselves surrounded by fangs and claws, and the never-ending
+hunger of their owners. The air, the earth and the waters swarmed
+with predatory animals, great and small, ever seeking for the
+herbivorous and traitorous species, and preferably those that
+were least able to fight or to flee. The La Brea fossil beds at
+Los Angeles, wherein a hospitable lake of warm asphalt conserved
+skeletal remains of vertebrates to an extent and perfection quite
+unparalleled, have revealed some very remarkable conditions. The
+enormous output, up to date, of skulls of huge lions, wolves,
+sabre-toothed tigers, bears and other predatory animals, shows,
+for once, just what the camels, llamas, deer, bison and mammoths
+of those days had to do, to be, and to suffer in order to survive.
+
+With the aid of a little serious study, it is by no means
+difficult to recognize the hard laws that have enabled the
+elephant, bison, sheep, goats, deer, antelope, gazelles, fur-seal,
+walrus and others to survive and increase. From the wild animal
+herds and bird flocks that we have seen and personally known,
+_we know what their laws are,_ and can set them down in the
+order of their evolution and importance.
+
+The First Law. _There shall be no fighting in the family, the
+herd or the species, at any other time than in the mating season;
+and then only between adult males who fight for herd
+leadership._
+
+The destructiveness of intertribal warfare, either organized or
+desultory, must have been recognized in Jurassic times, millions
+of years ago, by the reptiles of that period. Throughout the
+animal kingdom below man the blessings of peace now are thoroughly
+known. This first law is obeyed by all species save man. We doubt
+whether all the testimony of the rocks added together can show
+that one wild species of vertebrate life ever really was
+exterminated by another species, not even excepting the predatory
+species which lived by killing.
+
+No one (so far as we know) has charged that the lions, or the
+tigers, the bears, the orcas, the eagles or the owls have ever
+obliterated a species during historic times. It was the swine of
+civilization, transplanted by human agencies, that exterminated
+the dodo on the Island of Mauritius; and it was men, not birds of
+prey, who swept off the earth the great auk, the passenger pigeon
+and a dozen other bird species.
+
+The Second Law. _The strong members of a flock or herd shall not
+bully nor oppress the weak._
+
+This law, constantly broken by degenerate and vicious men, women
+and children, very rarely is broken in a free wild herd or flock.
+In the observance of this fundamental law, born of ethics and
+expediency, mankind is far behind the wild animals. It would serve
+a good purpose if the criminologists and the alienists would
+figure out the approximate proportion of the human species now
+living that bullies and maltreats and oppresses the weak and the
+defenseless. At this moment "society" in the United States is in a
+state of thoroughly imbecilic defenselessness against the new
+type of predatory savages known as "bandits."
+
+The Third Law. _During the annual period of motherhood, both
+prospective and actual, mothers must be held safe from all forms
+of molestation; and their young shall in no manner be interfered
+with._
+
+For the perpetuation of a family, a clan or a species, the
+protection of the mothers, and their weak and helpless offspring
+is a necessity recognized by even the dullest vertebrate animals.
+As birth-time or nesting-time approaches the wild flocks and herds
+universally permit the potential mothers to seek seclusion, and to
+work out their respective problems according to their own judgment
+and the means at their command. The coming mother looks for a spot
+that will afford (1) a secure hiding-place, (2) the best
+available shelter from inclement weather, (3) accessible food and
+water, and (4) cover or other protection for her young.
+
+During this period the males often herd together, and they serve a
+protective function by attracting to themselves the attacks of
+their enemies. For the mothers, the bearing time is a truce time.
+There are fox-hunters who roundly assert that in spring fox hounds
+have been known to refuse to attack and kill foxes about to become
+mothers.
+
+The Fourth Law. _In union there is strength; in separation
+there is weakness; and the solitary animal is in the greatest
+danger._
+
+It was the wild species of mammals and birds who learned and most
+diligently observed this law who became individually the most
+numerous. A hundred pairs of eyes, a hundred noses and a hundred
+pairs of listening ears increase about ten times the protection of
+the single individual against surprise attacks. The solitary
+elephant, bison, sheep or goat is far easier to stalk and approach
+than a herd, or a herd member. A wolf pack can attack and kill
+even the strongest solitary musk-ox, bison or caribou, but the
+horned herd is invincible. A lynx can pull down and kill a single
+mountain sheep ram, but even the mountain lion does not care to
+attack a herd of sheep. It is due solely to the beneficent results
+of this clear precept, and the law of defensive union, that any
+baboons are today alive in Africa.
+
+The grizzly bear loves mountain-goat meat; but he does not love to
+have his inner tube punctured by the deadly little black skewers
+on the head of a billy. It is the Mountain Goats' Protective Union
+that condemns the silvertip grizzly to laborious digging for
+humble little ground-squirrels, instead of killing goats for a
+living. The rogue elephant who will not behave himself in the
+herd, and will not live up to the herd law, is expelled; and after
+that takes place his wicked race is very soon ended by a high-
+power bullet, about calibre .26. The last one brought to my notice
+was overtaken by Charles Theobald, State Shikaree of Mysore, in a
+Ford automobile; and the car outlived the elephant.
+
+The Fifth Law. _Absolute obedience to herd leaders and parents
+is essential to the safety of the herd and of the individual; and
+this obedience must be prompt and thorough._
+
+Whenever the affairs of grown men and women are dominated by
+ignorant, inexperienced and rash juniors, look out for trouble;
+for as surely as the sun continues to shine, it will come. With an
+acquaintance that comprehends many species of wild quadrupeds and
+birds, I do not recall even one herd or flock that I have seen led
+by its young members. There are no young spendthrifts among the
+wild animals. For them, youthful folly is too expensive to be
+tolerated. The older members of the clan are responsible for its
+safety, and therefore do they demand obedience to their orders.
+They have their commands, and they have a sign language by which
+they convey them in terms that are silent but unmistakable. They
+order "Halt," and the herd stops, at once. At the command
+"Attention," each herd member "freezes" where he stands, and
+intently looks, listens and scents the air. At the order "Feed at
+will," the tension slowly relaxes; but if the order is "Fly!" the
+whole herd is off in a body, as if propelled by one mind and one
+power.
+
+My first knowledge of this law of the flock came down to me from
+the blue ether when I first saw, in my boyhood, a V-shaped flock
+of Canada geese cleaving the sky with straight and steady flight,
+and perfect alignment. Even in my boyish mind I realized that the
+well-ordered progress of the wild geese was in obedience to
+Intelligence and Flock Law. Later on, I saw on the Jersey sands
+the mechanical sweeps and curves and doubles of flying flocks of
+sandpipers and sanderlings, as absolutely perfect in obedience to
+their leaders as the slats of a Venetian blind.
+
+A herd of about thirty elephants, under the influence of a still
+alarm and sign signals, once vanished from the brush in front of
+me so quickly and so silently that it seemed uncanny. One single
+note of command from a gibbon troop leader is sufficient to set
+the whole company in instant motion, fleeing at speed and in good
+order, with not a sound save the swish of the small branches that
+serve as the rungs of their ladder of flight.
+
+In the actual practice of herd leadership in species of ruminant
+animals, the largest and most spectacular bull elk or bison is not
+always the leader. Frequently it has been observed that a wise old
+cow is the actual leader and director of the herd, and that "what
+she says, goes." This was particularly remarked to me by James
+McNaney during the course of our "last buffalo hunt" in Montana,
+in 1886. From 1880 to 1884 he had been a mighty buffalo-hunter,
+for hides. He stated that whenever as a still-hunter he got "a
+stand on a bunch," and began to shoot, slowly and patiently, so as
+not to alarm the stand, whenever a buffalo took alarm and
+attempted to lead away the bunch, usually it proved to be a wise
+old cow. The bulls seemed too careless to take notice of the
+firing and try to lead away from it.
+
+The Sixth Law. _Of food and territory, the weak shall have their
+share._
+
+While this law is binding upon all the members of a wild flock, a
+herd, a clan or a species, outside of species limits it may become
+null and void; though in actual practice I think that this rarely
+occurs. Among the hoofed animals; the seals and sea-lions; the
+apes, baboons and monkeys, and the kangaroos, the food that is
+available to a herd is common to all its members. We can not
+recall an instance of a species attempting to dispossess and
+evict another species, though it must be that many such have
+occurred. In the game-laden plains of eastern Africa, half a dozen
+species, such as kongonis, sable antelopes, gazelles and zebras,
+often have been observed in one landscape, with no fighting
+visible.
+
+With all but the predatory wild animals and man, the prevailing
+disposition is to _live, and let live._ One of the few
+recorded murders of young animals by an old one of the same
+species concerned the wanton killing of two polar bear cubs in
+northern Franz Joseph Land, as observed by Nansen.
+
+The Seventh Law. _Man is the deadliest enemy of all the wild
+creatures; and the instant a man appears the whole herd must fly
+from him, fast and far._
+
+In some of the regions to which man and his death-dealing
+influence have not penetrated, this law is not yet on the statute
+books of the jungle and the wilderness. Sir Ernest Shackleton and
+Captain Scott found it unknown to the giant penguins and sea
+leopards of the Antarctic Continent, I have seen a few flocks and
+herds by whom the law was either unknown or forgotten; but the
+total number is a small one. There was a herd of mountain sheep on
+Pinacate Peak, a big flock of sage grouse in Montana, various
+flocks of ptarmigan on the summits of the Elk River Mountains,
+British Columbia,--and out of a long list of occurrences that is
+all I will now recall.
+
+It is fairly common for the members of a vast assemblage of
+animals, like the bison, barren-ground caribou, fur seal, and sea
+birds on their nesting cliffs, to assume such security from their
+numbers as to ignore man; and all such cases are highly
+interesting manifestations of the influence of the fourth law when
+carried out to six decimal places.
+
+The Eighth and Last Law. _Whenever in a given spot all men cease
+to kill us, there may we accept sanctuary and dwell in peace._
+
+This law comes as Amendment 1 to the original Constitution of the
+Animal Kingdom. The quick intelligence of wild animals in
+recognizing a new sanctuary, and in adopting it unreservedly and
+thankfully as their own territory, is to all friends of wild life
+a source of wonder and delight. With their own eyes Americans have
+seen the effects of sanctuary-making upon bison, elk, mule deer,
+white-tailed deer, mountain sheep, mountain goat, prong-horned
+antelope, grizzly and black bears, beavers, squirrels, chipmunks,
+rabbits, sage grouse, quail, wild ducks and geese, swans, pelicans
+brown and white, and literally hundreds of species of smaller
+birds of half a dozen orders.
+
+In view of this magnificent and continent-wide manifestation of
+discovery, new thought and original conclusion, let no man tell us
+that the wild birds and quadrupeds "do not think" and "can not
+reason."
+
+The Exceptions of Captivity. When wild animals come into
+captivity, a few individuals develop and reveal their worst traits
+of character, and much latent wickedness comes to the surface. A
+small percentage of individuals become mean and lawless, and a
+still smaller number show criminal instincts. These Bolshevistic
+individuals commit misdemeanors and crimes such as are unknown in
+the wild state. One male ruminant out of perhaps fifty will turn
+murderer, and kill a female or a fawn, entirely contrary to the
+herd law; and at long intervals a male predatory animal kills his
+mate or young.
+
+Occasionally captivity warps wild animal or wild bird character
+quite out of shape, though it is a satisfaction to know that the
+total proportion of those so affected is very small. Long and
+close confinement in a prison-like home, filled with more daily
+cares and worries than any animal cage has of iron bars, has sent
+many a human wife and mother to an insane asylum; but the super-
+humanitarians who rail out at the existence of zoological parks
+and zoos are troubled by that not at all.
+
+
+
+
+XX
+
+PLAYS AND PASTIMES OF ANIMALS
+
+
+I approach this subject with a
+feeling of satisfaction; but I would not like to state the
+number of hours that I have spent in watching the play of our
+wild animals.
+
+Out in the wilds, where the bears, sheep and goats live and
+thrive, the outdoorsmen see comparatively few wild animals at
+play. No matter what the season, the dangers of the wilderness and
+mountain summit remain the same. When kids and lambs are young,
+the eaglets are hungriest, and their mothers are most determined
+in their hunting. After September 1, the deadly still-hunters are
+out, and strained watchfulness is the unvarying rule, from dawn
+until dark.
+
+Out in the wilds, it is the _moving_ animal that instantly
+catches every hostile eye within visual range. A white goat kid
+vigorously gamboling on the bare rocks would attract all the
+golden eagles, hunters, trappers and Indians within a radius of
+two miles. It is the rule that kids, fawns and lambs must _lie
+low and keep still,_ to avoid attracting deadly enemies. On the
+bare summits, play can be indulged in only at great risk.
+Generations of persecution have implanted in the brain of the
+ruminant baby the commanding instinct to fold up its long legs,
+neatly and compactly, furl its ears along its neck, and closely
+lie for hours against a rock or a log. During daylight hours they
+must literally hug the ground. Silence and inactivity is the first
+price that all young animals in the wilds pay for their lives. It
+is only in the safe shelter of captivity, or man-made sanctuaries,
+that they are free to play.
+
+In the comfortable security of the "zoo" all the wild conditions
+are changed. The restraints of fear are off, and every animal is
+free to act as joyous as it feels. Here we see things that men
+_never see in the wilds!_ If any Rocky Mountain bear hunter
+should ever see bear cubs or full-grown bears wrestling and
+carrying on as they do here, he would say that they were plumb
+crazy!
+
+Of all our wild animals, not even excepting the apes and monkeys,
+our young bears are the most persistently playful. In fact, I
+believe that when _properly caged and tended,_ bears under
+eight years of age are the most joyous and playful of all wild
+animals. We have given our bears smooth and spacious yards floored
+with concrete, with a deep pool in the centre of each, and great
+possibilities in climbing upon rocks high and low. The top of each
+sleeping den is a spacious balcony with a smooth floor. The
+facilities for bear wrestling and skylarking are perfect, and
+there are no offensive uneven floors nor dead stone walls to annoy
+or discourage any bear. They can look at each other through the
+entire series of cages and there is no chance whatever for a bear
+to feel lonesome. We put just as many individuals into each cage
+as we think the traffic will stand; and sometimes as many as six
+young bears are reared together.
+
+Now, all these conditions promote good spirits, playfulness, and
+the general enjoyment of life. Any one who thinks that our bears
+are not far happier than those that are in the wilds and exposed
+to enemies, hunger and cold, should pause and consider.
+
+Our bear cubs begin to play just as soon as they emerge from their
+natal den, in March or April, and they keep it up until they are
+six or seven years of age,--or longer! Our visitors take the
+playfulness of small cubs as a matter of course, but the clumsy
+and ridiculous postures and antics of fat-paunched full-grown
+bears are irresistibly funny. Really, there are times when it
+seems as if the roars of laughter from the watching crowd
+stimulates wrestling bears to further efforts. On October 28,
+1921, about seventy boys stood in front of and alongside the
+den of two Kluane grizzly cubs and shouted for nearly half an hour
+in approval and admiration of the rapid and rough play of those
+cubs.
+
+[Illustration with caption: ADULT BEARS AT PLAY]
+
+The play of bears, young or middle-aged, consists in boxing,
+catch-as-catch-can wrestling, and chasing each other to and fro.
+Cubs begin to spar as soon as they are old enough to stand erect
+on their hind feet. They take their distance as naturally as
+prize-fighters, and they strike, parry and dodge just as men do.
+They handle their front feet with far more dexterity and precision
+than boys six years of age.
+
+Boxing bears always strike for the head, and bite to seize the
+cheek of the opponent. In biting, mouth meets mouth, in defense as
+well as attack. When a biting bear makes a successful pass and
+finally succeeds in getting a firm toothhold on the cheek of his
+opponent, the party of the second part promptly throws himself
+prone upon the ground, and with four free feet concentrated upon
+the head of the other bear forces him to let go. This movement,
+and the four big, flat foot soles coming up into action is, in
+large bears, a very laughable spectacle, and generally produces a
+roar.
+
+Wrestling bears roll over and over on the ground, clawing and
+biting, until one scrambles up, and either makes a new attack or
+rushes away.
+
+Bears love to chase one another, _and be chased;_ and in this
+form of skylarking they raise a whirlwind of activity which leads
+all around the floor, up to the balcony and along the length of
+it, and plunges down at the other end. Often a bear that is chased
+will fling himself into the bathing pool, with a tremendous
+splash, quickly scramble out again and rush off anew in a swirl of
+flying water.
+
+The two big male polar bears that came to us from the William
+Hagenbeck group were very fond of playing and wrestling in the
+water of their swimming pool. Often they kept up that aquatic
+skylarking for two hours at a stretch, and by this constant claw
+work upon each other's pelts they kept their coats of hair so
+thinned down that we had to explain them. One bear had a very
+spectacular swimming trick. He would swim across the pool until
+his front feet touched the side, then he would throw himself over
+backwards, put his hind feet against the rock wall, and with a
+final shove send himself floating gracefully on his back across to
+the other side.
+
+Playful bears are much given to playing tricks, and teasing each
+other. A bear sleeping out in the open den is regarded as a proper
+subject for hectoring, by a sudden bite or cuff, or a general
+assault. It is natural to expect that wrestling bears will
+frequently become angry and fight; but such is not the case. This
+often happens with boys and men, but bears play the game
+consistently to the end. I can not recall a single instance of a
+real bear fight as the result of a wrestling or boxing match; and
+may all boys take note of this good example from the bear dens.
+
+Next to the bears, the apes and monkeys are our most playful
+animals. Here, also, it is the young and the half grown members of
+the company that are most active in play. Fully mature animals are
+too sedate, or too heavy, for the frivolities of youth. A well-
+matched pair of young chimpanzees will wrestle and play longer and
+harder than the young of any other primate species known to me. It
+is important to cage together only young apes of equal size and
+strength, for if there is any marked disparity in size, the larger
+and stronger animal will wear out the strength of its smaller
+cage-mate, and impair its health.
+
+In playing, young chimps, orangs or monkeys seize each other and
+wrestle, fall, and roll over and over, indefinitely. They make
+great pretenses of biting each other, but it is all make-believe.
+My favorite orang-utan pet in Borneo loved to play at biting me,
+but whenever the pressure became too strong I would say chidingly,
+"Ah! Ah!" and his jaws would instantly relax. He loved to butt me
+in the chest with his head, make wry faces, and make funny noises
+with his lips. I tried to teach him "cat's cradle" but it was too
+much for him. His clumsy fingers could not manage it.
+
+One of our brightest chimpanzees, named Baldy, was much given to
+hectoring his female cage-mate, for sport. What he regarded as his
+best joke was destroying her bed. Many times over, after she had
+laboriously carried straw up to the balcony, carefully made up a
+nice, soft, circular bed for herself, and settled down upon it for
+a well-earned rest, Baldy would silently climb up to her level,
+suddenly fling himself upon her as she lay, and with all four of
+his arms and legs violently working, the nest would be torn to
+pieces and scattered and the lady orang rudely pulled about. Then
+Baldy would joyously swing down to the lower level, settle himself
+demurely at the front of the cage, and with a placid face and
+innocent, far-away expression in his eyes gaze at the crowd. There
+was nothing lacking but a mischievous wink of one eye.
+
+Whenever his cage-mate selected a particularly long and perfect
+straw and placed it crosswise in her mouth, Baldy would steal up
+behind her and gleefully snatch it away.
+
+Baldy was a born comedian. He loved to amuse a crowd and make
+people laugh. He would go through a great trapeze performance of
+clownish and absurd gymnastics, and often end it with three or
+four loud smacks of his big black feet against the wall. This was
+accomplished by violent kicking backwards. His dancing and up-and-
+down jumping always made visitors laugh, after which he would
+joyously give his piercing "_Wah-hoo_" shout of triumph. A
+Sioux Indian squaw dances by jumping up and down, but her
+performance is lifeless in comparison.
+
+No vaudeville burlesque dancer ever cut a funnier monkey shine
+than the up-and-down high-jump dance and floor-slapping act of our
+Boma chimpanzee (1921). Boma offers this whenever he becomes
+especially desirous of entertaining a party of distinguished
+visitors. In stiff dancing posture, he leaps high in the air,
+precisely like a great black jumping-jack straight from Dante's
+Inferno. Orangs love to turn somersaults, and some individuals
+are so persistent about it as to wear the hair off their backs,
+disfigure their beauty, and disgust their keepers.
+
+In the chapter on "Mental Traits of the Gorilla" a descriptionis
+given of the play of Major Penny's wonderful John Gorilla.
+
+When many captive monkeys are kept together in one large cage
+containing gymnastic properties, many species develop humor, and
+indulge in play of many kinds. They remind me of a group of well-
+fed and boisterous small boys who must skylark or "bust." From
+morning until night they pull each other's tails, wrestle and
+roll, steal each other's playthings, and wildly chase each other
+to and fro. There is no end of chattering, and screeching, and
+funny facial grimaces. A writer in _Life_ once said that the
+sexes of monkeys can be distinguished by the fact that "the
+females chatter twice as fast as the males," but I am sure that
+many ladies will dispute that statement.
+
+In a company of mixed monkeys, or a mixed company of monkeys, a
+timid and fearsome individual is often made the butt of practical
+jokes by other monkeys who recognize its weakness. And who has not
+seen the same trait revealed in crowds of boys?
+
+But we can linger no longer with the Primates.
+
+Who has not seen squirrels at play? Once seen, such an incident is
+not soon forgotten. I have seen gray, fox and red squirrels engage
+in highly interesting performances. The gray squirrel is stately
+and beautiful in its play, but the red squirrel is amazing in its
+elaborateness of method. I have seen a pair of those mischief-
+makers perform low down on the trunk of a huge old virgin white
+oak tree, where the holding was good, and work out a program
+almost beyond belief. They raced and chased to and fro, up, down
+and across, in circles, triangles, parabolas and rectangles, until
+it was fairly bewildering. Really, they seemed to move just as
+freely and certainly on the tree-trunk as if they were on the
+ground, with no such thing in sight as the law of gravitation.
+
+It seems to me that the gray squirrel barks and the red squirrel
+chatters, scolds, and at times swears, chiefly for the fun of
+hearing himself make a noise. In the red squirrel it is impudent
+and defiant; and usually you hear it near your camp, or in your
+own grounds, where the rascals know that they will not be shot.
+
+The playful spirit seems to be inherent in the young of all the
+Felidae. The playfulness of lion, tiger, leopard and puma cubs is
+irresistibly pleasing; and it is worth while to rear domestic
+kittens in order to watch their playful antics.
+
+I have been assured by men who seemed to know, that wolf and fox
+cubs silently play in front of their home dens, when well screened
+from view, just as domestic dog puppies do; and what on earth can
+beat the playfulness of puppies of the right kind, whose parents
+have given them red blood instead of fat as their inheritance.
+Interesting books might be written about the play of dogs alone.
+
+The play of the otter, in sliding down a long and steep toboggan
+slide of wet and slippery earth to a water plunge at the bottom,
+is well known to trappers, hunters, and a few naturalists. It is
+quite celebrated, and is on record in many places. I have seen
+otter slides, but never had the good luck to see one in use. The
+otters indulge in this very genuine sport with just as much
+interest and zest as boys develop in coasting over ice and snow
+with their sleds.
+
+Here at the Zoological Park, young animals of a number of species
+amuse themselves in the few ways that are open to them. It is a
+common thing for fawns and calves of various kinds to butt their
+mothers, just for fun. A more common form of infantile ruminant
+sport is racing and jumping. Now and then we see a red buffalo
+calf three or four months old suddenly begin a spell of running
+for amusement, in the pure exuberance of health and good living. A
+calf will choose a long open course, usually up and down a gentle
+slope, and for two hundred feet or more race madly to and fro for
+a dozen laps, with tail stiffly and very absurdly held aloft. Of
+course men and beasts all pause to look at such performances, and
+at the finish the panting and perspiring calf halts and gazes
+about with a conscious air of pride. All this is deliberate
+"showing off," just such as small boys frequently engage in.
+
+Elk fawns, and more rarely deer fawns, also occasionally indulge
+in similar performances. Often an adult female deer develops the
+same trait. One of our female Eld's deer annually engages in a
+series of spring runs. We have seen her race the full length of
+her corral, up and down, over a two hundred foot course, at really
+break-neck speed, and keep it up until her tongue hung out.
+
+Years ago, in the golden days, I was so lucky as to see several
+times wonderful dances of flocks of saras cranes on the low sandy
+islets in the River Jumna, northern India, just below Etawah. It
+was like this: While the birds are idly stepping about, apropos of
+nothing at all, one suddenly flaps his long wings several times in
+succession, another jumps straight up in the air for a yard or so,
+and presto! with one accord the whole flock is galvanized into
+action. They throw aside their dignity, and real fun begins. Some
+stand still, heads high up, and flap their wings many times.
+Others leap in the air, straight up and down, one jump after
+another, as high as they can go. Others run about bobbing and
+bowing, and elaborately courtesying to each other with half opened
+wings, breasts low down and their tails high in the air, cutting
+very ridiculous figures.
+
+In springtime in the Zoological Park we often see similar
+exhibitions of crane play in our large crane paddock. A
+particularly joyous bird takes a fit of running with spread wings,
+to and fro, many times over, and usually one bird thus performing
+inspires another, probably of his own kind, to join in the game.
+The other cranes look on admiringly and sometimes a spectator
+shrilly trumpets his approval.
+
+In his new book, "The Friendly Arctic," Mr. Vilhjalmur Stefansson
+records an interesting example of play indulged in jointly by a
+frivolous arctic fox and eight yearling barren-ground caribou. It
+was a game of tag, or its wild equivalent. The fox ran into and
+through the group of caribou fawns, which gave chase and tried to
+catch the fox, but in vain. At last the fawns gave up the chase,
+returned to their original position, and came to parade rest. Then
+back came the fox. Again it scurried through the group in a most
+tantalizing manner, which soon provoked the fawns to chase the fox
+anew. At the end of this inning the caribou again abandoned the
+chase, whereupon the fox went off to attend to other affairs.
+
+On the whole, the play of wild animals is a large field and no
+writer will exhaust it with one chapter. Very sincerely do we wish
+that at least one of the many romance writers who are so
+industriously inventing wild-animal blood-and-thunder stories
+would do more work with his eyes and less with his imagination.
+
+
+
+
+XXI
+
+COURAGE IN WILD ANIMALS
+
+
+Either in wild animals or tame men, courage is the moral impulse
+that impels an individual to fight or to venture at the risk of
+bodily harm. Like Theodore Roosevelt, the truly courageous
+individual engages his adversary without stopping to consider the
+possible consequences to himself. The timid man shrinks from the
+onset while he takes counsel of his fears, and reflects that "It
+may injure me in my business," or that "It may hurt my standing;"
+and in the end he becomes a slacker.
+
+Among the mental traits and passions of wild creatures, a
+quantitative and qualitative analysis of courage becomes a highly
+interesting study. We can easily fall into the error of
+considering that fighting is the all-in-all measure of courage;
+which very often is far from being true. The mother quail that
+pretends to be wounded and feigns helplessness in order to draw
+hostile attention unto herself and away from her young, thereby
+displays courage of a high order. No quail unburdened by a
+helpless brood requiring her protection ever dreams of taking such
+risks. The gray gibbons of Borneo, who quite successfully made
+their escape from us, but promptly returned close up to my party
+in response to the S. O. S. cries of a captured baby gibbon,
+displayed the sublime courage of parental affection, and of
+desperation. Wary, timid and fearfully afraid of man, at the first
+sight of a biped they swing away. At the first roar of a gun they
+literally fly down hill through the treetops, and vanish in a wild
+panic. And yet, the leading members of that troop halted and
+swiftly came back, piercing the gloom and silence of the forest
+with their shrill cries of mingled encouragement and protest. It
+was quite as courageous and heroic as the act of a father who
+rushes into a burning building to save his child, at the imminent
+risk of his own life.
+
+The animal world has its full share of heroes. Also, it has its
+complement of pugilists and bullies, its cowards and its
+assassins.
+
+Few indeed are the wild creatures that fight gratuitously, or
+attack other animals without cause. If a fight occurs, look for
+the motive. The wild creatures know that peace promotes happiness
+and long life. Now, of all wild quadrupeds, it is probable that
+the African baboons are pound for pound the most pugnacious, and
+the quickest on the draw. The old male baboon in his prime will
+fight anything that threatens his troop, literally at the drop of
+a hat. But there is method in his madness. He and his wives and
+children dwell on the ground in lands literally reeking with fangs
+and claws. He has to confront the lion, leopard, wild dog and
+hyena, and make good his right to live. No wonder, then, that his
+temper is hot, his voice raucous and blood-curdling; his canines
+fearfully long and sharp, and his savage yell of warning
+sufficient to keep even the king of beasts off his grass.
+
+Once I saw two baboons fight. We had two huge and splendid adult
+male gelada baboons, from Abyssinia. They were kept separate, but
+in adjoining cages; and the time came when we needed one of those
+cages for another distinguished arrival. We decided to try the
+rather hazardous experiment of herding those two geladas together.
+
+Accordingly, we first opened the doors to both outside cages, to
+afford for the moment a free circulation of baboons, and then we
+opened the partition door. Instantly the two animals rushed
+together in raging combat. With a fierce grip each seized the
+other by the left cheek; and then began a baboon cyclone. They
+spun around on their axis, they rolled over and over on the floor,
+and they waltzed in speechless rage over every foot of those two
+cages. Strange to say, beyond coughing and gasping they made no
+sounds. Never before had we witnessed such a fearsome exhibition
+of insane hatred and rage.
+
+As soon as the horrified spectators could bring it about, the wild
+fighters were separated; and strange to say, neither of them was
+seriously injured. It was a drawn battle.
+
+It is quite difficult to weigh and measure the independent and
+abstract courage inherent in any wild animal species. All that can
+be done is to grope after the truth. On this subject there can be
+almost as many different opinions as there are species of wild
+animals.
+
+What animal will go farthest in daring and defying man, even the
+man with a gun, in foraging for food?
+
+Unquestionably and indisputably, the lion. This is no idle
+repetition of an old belief, or tradition. It is a fact; and we
+say this quite mindful of the records made by the grizzly bear,
+the Alaskan brown bear, the tiger, the leopard and the jaguar.
+
+"The Man-Eaters of Tsavo" opened up a strange and new chapter in
+the life history of the savage lion. That truthful record of an
+astounding series of events showed the lion in an attitude of
+permanent aggression, backed by amazing and persistent courage.
+For several months in that rude construction camp on the arid
+bank of the Tsavo River, where a railway bridge was being
+constructed on the famous Uganda Railway line of British East
+Africa, lions and men struggled mightily and fought with each
+other, with living men as the stakes of victory. The book written
+by Col. J.H. Patterson, under the title mentioned above, tells a
+plain and simple story of the nightly onslaughts of the lions, the
+tragedies suffered from them, the constant, the desperate though
+often ill-consideredefforts of the white engineers to protect
+the terrorized black laborers, and finally the death of the man-
+eaters. During a series of battles lasting four long months the
+two lions _killed and carried of a total of twenty-eight
+men!_ How many natives were killed and not reported never will
+be known. The most hair-raising episode of all had a comedy touch,
+and fortunately it did not quite end in a tragedy. This is what
+happened:
+
+Col. Patterson and his staff decided to try to catch the boldest
+of the lions in a trap baited with _a living man._
+Accordingly a two-room trap was built, one room to hold and
+protect the man-bait, the other to catch and hold the lion. A very
+courageous native consented to be "it," and he was put in place
+and fastened up. The lion came on schedule time, he found the
+live bait, boldly entered the trap to seize it, and the dropping
+door fell as advertised. When the lion found himself caught, did
+his capture trouble him? Not in the least. Instead of starting in
+to tear his way out he decided to postpone his escape until he
+had torn down the partition and eaten the man! So at the
+partition he went, with teeth and claws.
+
+In mortal terror the live bait yelled for succor. In "the last
+analysis" the man was saved from the lion, but the lion joyously
+tore his way out and escaped without a scratch. So far from being
+daunted by this divertisement he continued his man-killing
+industry, quite as usual.
+
+Now, the salient points of the man-eaters of Tsavo consist of the
+unquenchable courage of the two lions, and their persistent
+defiance of white men armed with rifles. I am sure that there is
+nowhere in existence another record of wild-animal courage equal
+to this, and the truthfulness of it is quite beyond question.
+
+The annals of African travel and exploration contain instances
+innumerable of the unparalleled courage of the lion in taking what
+he wants when he wants it.
+
+THE GRIZZLY BEAR'S COURAGE. As a subject, this is a
+hazardous risk, because so many men are able to tell all about it.
+Judging from reliable records of the ways and means of the grizzly
+bear, I think we must award the second prize for courage to "Old
+Ephraim." The list of his exploits in scaring pioneers, in
+attacking hunters, in robbing camps, and finally in bear-
+handling and almost killing two guides in the Yellowstone Park, is
+long and thrilling. The record reaches back to the days of Lewis
+and Clark, who related many wild adventures with bears. The
+grizzlies of their day were very courageous, but even then they
+were _not_ greatly given to attacking men quite unprovoked!
+In those days of bow-and-arrow Indians, and of white men armed
+only with ineffective muzzle-loading pea rifles, using only weak
+black powder, the grizzlies had an even chance with their human
+adversaries, and sometimes they took first money. In those days
+the courage of the grizzly was at its highest peak; and it was
+then conceded by all frontiersmen that the grizzly was thoroughly
+courageous, and always ready to fight. In the light of subsequent
+history, and in order to be just to the grizzly, we claim that his
+fighting was _in self defense,_ for even in those days the
+unwounded bear preferred to run rather than to fight
+unnecessarily.
+
+The rise of the high-power, long-range repeating rifle has made
+the grizzly bear a different animal from what he was in the days
+of Lewis and Clark. He has learned, _thoroughly,_ the supreme
+deadliness of man's new weapons, and he knows that he is no longer
+able to meet men on even terms. Consequently, he runs, he hides,
+he avoids man, everywhere save in the Yellowstone Park, where he
+has found out that firearms are prohibited. There he has broken
+the truce so often that his offenses have had to be met with stern
+disciplinary measures that have made for the safety of tourists
+and guides.
+
+Once I saw an amusing small incident. Be it known that when a new
+black bear cub is introduced to a den of its peers, the newcomer
+shrinks in fright, and cowers, and takes its place right humbly.
+But species alter cases. Once when we received an eight-months-
+old grizzly cub we turned it loose in a big den that contained
+five black bear cubs a year older than itself. But did the grizzly
+cub cower and shrink? By no manner of means. With head fully
+erect, it marched calmly to the centre of the den, and with serene
+confidence gave the other cubs the once-over with an air that
+plainly said: "_I'm_ a grizzly! I'm here, and I've come to
+stay. Do I hear any objections?"
+
+Quite as if in answer to the challenge, an eighteen-months-old
+black bear presently sidled up and made a trial blow at the
+grizzly's head. Instantly the grizzly cub's right arm shot out a
+well-delivered blow that sent the black one scurrying away in a
+panic, and perceptibly cleared the atmosphere. That cub had
+grizzly-bear _courage_ and _confidence;_ that was all.
+
+There are a number of American sportsmen who esteem the Cape
+buffalo as the most aggressive and dangerous wild animal in
+eastern Africa. He is so courageous and so persistently bold that
+he is much given to lying in wait for hunters and attacking with
+real fury. The high grass of his swamps is very helpful to him as
+a means of defense. In our National Collection of Heads and Horns
+there is a huge buffalo head (for years the world's highest
+record) that tells the story of a near tragedy. The brother of Mr.
+F.H. Barber, of South Africa, fired at the animal, but failed to
+stop it. His gun jammed, and the charging beast was almost in the
+act of killing him when F.H. Barber fired without pausing to take
+aim. His lucky bullet knocked a piece out of the buffalo's left
+horn, dazed the animal for a moment, and afforded time for the
+shot that killed the mighty bull.
+
+The leopard is usually a vicious beast. When brought to bay it
+fights with great fury and success. The black leopard is supremely
+vicious and intractable. Nearly all leopards hate training, and I
+have seen two or three leopard "acts" that were nerve-racking to
+witness because of the clear determination of all the animals to
+kill their trainer at the first opportunity.
+
+The status of the big Alaskan brown bear has already been referred
+to in terms that may stand as an estimate of its courage. Really,
+it is now in the same mental state as the grizzly bears of the
+days of Lewis and Clark, and the surplus must be shot to admonish
+the survivors and protect the rights of man.
+
+THE RAGE OF A WILD BULL ELK. One of the most remarkable
+cases of rage, resentment and fighting courage in a newly
+captured wild animal occurred near Buttonwillow, California, in
+November 1904, and is very graphically described by Dr. C. Hart
+Merriam in the _Scientific Monthly_ for November 1921. The
+story concerns the leader of a band of the small California Valley
+Elk (_Cervus nannodes_) which it was desired to transport to
+Sequoia Park, for permanent preservation.
+
+The bull refused to be driven to the corral for capture, so he was
+roped, thrown, hog-tied and hauled six miles on a wagon. This
+indignity greatly enraged the animal. At the corral he was
+liberated for the purpose of driving him through a chute and into
+a car.
+
+From his capture and the jolting ride the bull was furious, and he
+refused to be driven. His first act was to gore and mortally wound
+a young elk that unfortunately found itself in the corral with
+him. Then he was roped again and his horns were sawn off. At first
+no horseman dared to ride into the corral to attempt to drive the
+animal. Finally the leader of the cowboys, Bill Woodruff, mounted
+on a wise and powerful horse who knew the game quite as well as
+his rider, rode into the corral with the raging elk, and attempted
+to drive it.
+
+The story of the fight that followed, of raging elk vs. horse and
+man, makes stories of Spanish bullfights seem tame and
+commonplace, and the adventure of St. George and the dragon a dull
+affair. With the stubs of his antlers the bull charged the horse
+again and again, inflicting upon the splendid animal heart-rending
+punishment. Finally, after a fearful conflict, the wise and brave
+horse conquered, and the elk devil was forced into the car.
+
+After a short railway journey the elk was forced into a crate,--
+fighting at every step,--and hauled a two days' journey to the
+Park. Reduced to kicking as its sole expression of resentment, the
+animal kicked continuously for forty-eight hours, almost
+demolishing the crate.
+
+The final scene of this unparalleled drama of wild-animal rage is
+thus described by Dr. Merriam: "Then the other gates were
+raised, giving the bull an opportunity to step out. For the
+first, time since his capture he did what was wanted; he
+voluntarily crept to the rear of the wagon and hobbled out on the
+ground. Looking around for an enemy to attack and not seeing any,
+--some of the men having stationed themselves outside the park
+fence, the others on top of the crate,--he set out for the river,
+only a few rods away.
+
+"His courage had not forsaken him, but his strength had. He was no
+longer the proudly aggressive wild beast he had been. He had
+reached his limit. The terrible ordeal he had been through; the
+struggle incident to his capture; the rough, hot ride to the
+corral, hog-tied, on the hard floor of the dead-ax wagon; the
+outbursts of passion in the corral; the fighting and second roping
+in connection with the sawing off of his horns; the battle with
+the big horse; the ceaseless violence of his destructive
+assaults, first in the car, then in the crate, continued for three
+days and nights, had finally undermined even his iron frame; so
+when at last he found himself free on the ground, he presented a
+truly pitiful picture.
+
+"With his head bent to one side and back curved, with one ear up
+and the other down, and with a dejected, helpless expression on
+his face, he hobbled wearily away, barely able to step without
+falling. Slowly he made his way to the river, waded in, drank,
+crossed to the far side, staggered laboriously up the low bank,
+and lay down. The next day he was found in the same spot,--dead."
+
+THE DEFENSE OF THE HOME AND FAMILY. Any man who is too
+cowardly to fight for his home and country deserves to live and
+die homeless and without a country.
+
+With this subject of courage the parental and fraternal affections
+of wild animals are inseparably linked. The defense of the home
+and family unit is the foundation of all courage, and of all
+fighting qualities in man or animals. The gospel of self-defense
+is the first plank in the platform of the home defenders.
+Obviously, the head of a family cannot permit himself to be
+knocked out, because as the chief fighter in the Home Defense
+League it is his bounden duty to preserve his strength and his
+weapons, and remain fit.
+
+In the days of the club, the stone axe and the flint arrow-head,
+men were few and feeble, and the wild beasts had no cause to fear
+extermination. Tooth, claw and horn were about as formidable as
+the clumsy and inadequate weapons of man. The wild species went on
+developing naturally, and some mighty hosts were the result.
+
+But gunpowder changed all that. In the chase it gave weak men
+their innings beside the strong. Man could kill at long range,
+with little danger to himself, or even with none at all. And then
+in the wild beast world the great final struggle for existence
+began. Man's flippant phrase,--"the survival of the fittest,"--
+became charged with sinister and deadly meaning.
+
+But for Mother Love among wild creatures, species would not
+multiply, and the earth soon would become depopulated. In the
+entire Deer Family of the world, the annual shedding of all horns
+is Nature's tribute to motherhood in the herd. A buck deer or a
+bull moose is a domineering master--so long as his antlers remain
+upon his head. But with the approach of fawn-bearing time in the
+herd, down they go. I have seen a bull elk stand with humbly
+lowered head, and gaze reproachfully upon his fallen antlers. The
+dehorned buck not only no longer hectors and drives the females,
+but in fear of hurting his tender new velvet stubs he keeps well
+away from the front hoofs of the cows. The calves grow up quite
+safe from molestation within the herd.
+
+It may be set down as a basic truth that all vertebrate animals
+are ready to defend their homes and their young against all
+enemies that do not utterly outclass them in size and strength. Of
+course we do not expect the pygmy to try conclusions with the
+giant, but at the same time, wild creatures have their own queer
+ways of defense and counter-attack, and of matching superior
+cunning against superior force. But now, throughout the animal
+world, the fear of man is paramount. Nearly all the wild ones have
+learned it. It is only the enraged, the frightened or the cornered
+bear, lion, tiger or elephant that charges the Man with a Gun, and
+seeks to counter upon him with fang and claw before it drops. The
+deadly supremacy of the repeating rifle that kills big game at
+half a mile, and the pump shotgun that gets five geese out of a
+flock, are well recognized by the terrorized big game and small
+game that flies before the sweeping pestilence of machine guns and
+automobiles.
+
+THE FIGHTING CANADA GOOSE. In essaying to illustrate the
+home defense spirit, my memory goes out to one truculent and
+fearless Canada goose whose mate elected to nest in a horribly
+exposed spot on the east bank of our Wild-Fowl Pond. The location
+was an error in judgment. As soon as the nest was finished and the
+eggs laid therein, the goose took her place upon the collection,
+and the gander mounted guard.
+
+There were so many hostiles on the warpath that he was kept on the
+qui vive during all daylight hours. At a radius of about twenty
+feet he drew an imaginary dead-line around the family nest, and no
+bird, beast or man could pass that line without a fight. If any
+other goose, or a swan or duck, attempted to pass, the guardian
+gander would rush forward with blazing eyes, open beak, wings open
+for action, and with distended neck hiss out his challenge. If
+the intruder failed to register respect, and came on, the gander
+would seize the offender with his beak, and furiously wing-beat
+him into flight. That gander was afraid of nothing, and his
+courage and readiness to fight all comers, all day long, caused
+visitors to accord him full recognition as a belligerent power.
+
+THE CASE OF THE LAUGHING GULL. About that same time, a pair
+of laughing gulls had the temerity to build a nest on the ground
+in the very storm centre of the great Flying Cage. Daily and
+hourly they were surrounded by a truculent mob of pelicans,
+herons, ibises, storks, egrets and ducks, the most of whom
+delighted in wrecking households. The keepers sided with the
+gulls by throwing around their nest a wire entanglement, with a
+sally-port at one side for the use of the beleaguered pair.
+
+The voice of an angry or frightened laughing gull is it [sic]
+owner's chief defense. The female sat on her nest and shrieked out
+her shrill and defiant war cry of "Kah! kah, kah, kah!" The male
+took post just outside the sally-port, where he postured and
+screamed and threatened until we wondered why he did not burst
+with superheated emotion. I am sure that never before did two
+small gulls ever raise so much racket in so short a time and their
+cage-mates must have found it rather trying.
+
+The gulls hatched their eggs, they reared their young
+successfully, and at last peace was restored.
+
+A Mother Antelope Fights Off an Eagle. Mr. Howard Eaton, of Wolf,
+Wyoming, once saw a female prong-horned antelope put up a strong
+and successful fight in defense of her newly-born fawn. A golden
+eagle, whose spring specialty is for fawns, kids and lambs, was
+seen to swoop swiftly down toward a solitary antelope that had
+been noticed on a treeless range beside the Little Missouri. It
+quickly became evident that the eagle was after an antelope fawn.
+As the bird swooped down toward the mother, and endeavored to
+seize her fawn in its talons, the doe rose high on her hind legs,
+and with her forelegs flying like flails struck with her sharp-
+pointed hoofs again and again. Her blows went home, and feathers
+were seen to fly from the body of the marauder.
+
+The doe made good her defense. The eagle was glad to escape, and
+as quickly as possible pulled himself together and flew away.
+
+The Defensive Circle of the Musk-Ox. Several arctic explorers have
+described the wonderful living-ring defense, previously mentioned,
+of musk-ox herds against wolves. Mr. Paul Rainey's moving pictures
+have shown it to us in thrilling detail, with Eskimo dogs instead
+of wolves. When a musk-ox herd is attacked by the big and deadly
+arctic white wolves, the bulls and adult cows herd the calves and
+young stock into a compact group, then take their places shoulder
+to shoulder around them in a perfect circle, and with lowered
+heads await the onset. The sharp down-and-up curved horn of the
+musk-ox is a deadly weapon against all the dangerous animals of
+the North, except man.
+
+When a wolf approaches near and endeavors to make a breach in the
+circle, the musk-ox nearest him tries to get him, and will even
+rush out of the line for a short and brief pursuit. But the bull
+does not pursue more than twenty yards or so, for fear of being
+surrounded alone and cut off. At the end of his usually futile
+run, back he goes and carefully backs into his place in the first
+line of defense. A charging bull does not rush out far enough that
+the wolves can cut him off and kill him. He is much too wise for
+that.
+
+Mr. Stefansson says that the impregnability of the musk-ox defense
+is so well recognized by the wolves of the North that often a pack
+will march past a herd in close proximity without offering to
+attack it, and without even troubling the herd to form the hollow
+circle.
+
+A Savage Wild Boar. I once had a "fight" with a captive Japanese
+wild boar, under conditions both absurd and tragic, and from it I
+learned the courage and fury of such animals. The animal was
+large, powerful, fearfully savage toward every living thing, and
+insanely courageous. It was confined in a yard enclosed by a
+strong wire fence, and while we were all very sure that the fence
+would hold it, I became uneasy. In mid-afternoon I went alone to
+the spot, passing hundreds of school children on the way, to study
+the situation. When I reached the front of the corral and stood
+still to look at the fence, the boar immediately rushed for me. He
+came straight on, angry and terrible, and charged the wire like a
+living battering-ram. He repeated these charges until I became
+fearful of an outbreak, and decided to try to make him afraid to
+repeat them. Procuring from the bear dens, a pike pole with a
+stout spike in the end, I received the next charge with a return
+thrust meant to puncture both the boar's hide and his
+understanding. He backed off and charged more furiously than ever,
+with white foam flying from his jaws.
+
+He cared nothing for his punishment. He charged until his snout
+bled freely, and the fence bulged at the strain.
+
+Then I became regularly scared! I feared that the savage beast
+would break through the fence in spite of its strength, and run
+amuck among those helpless children. I "beat it" back to my
+office, hurried back with one of my loaded rifles, and without
+losing a second put a bullet through that raging brain and ended
+that danger forever.
+
+The Overrated Peccary. This reminds me that the collared peccary
+has been credited with a degree of courage that has been much
+exaggerated. While a hunted and cornered peccary will fight dogs
+or men, and put up a savage and dangerous defense, men whom I
+know in the peccary belt of Mexico have assured me that a drove of
+peccaries will _not_ attack a hunter who has killed one of
+their mates, nor keep him up a tree for hours while they swarm
+underneath him waiting for his blood. I have been assured by
+competent witnesses that in peccary hunting there is no danger
+whatever of mass attack through a desire for revenge, and that
+peccaries fired at will run like deer.
+
+A Black Bear Killed a Man for Food. There is on record at least
+one well-authenticated case of a black bear deliberately going out
+of his way to cross a river, attack a man and kill him.
+
+On May 17, 1907, at a lumber camp of the Red Deer Lumber Company,
+thirty miles south of Etiomami on the Canadian Northern Railway,
+Northwest Territory, a cook named T. Wilson was chased by a large
+black bear, without provocation, struck once on the head, and
+instantly killed. The bear then picked him up, carried him a short
+distance, and proceeded to _eat_ him. Ten shots from a .32
+calibre revolver had no effect. Later a rifle ball drove the bear
+away, but only after it had eaten the left thigh and part of the
+body. (Forest and Stream, Feb. 8, 1908.)
+
+The Status of the Gray Wolf. In America wolves rarely succeed in
+killing men, although they often follow men's trails in the hope
+of spoil of some kind. But there are exceptions.
+
+In 1912, around Lake Nipigon, Province of Ontario, Canada, there
+existed a reign of terror from wolves. The first man killed was a
+half-breed mail-carrier. Then, in December, another mail-carrier,
+who was working the lumber camps north of Lake Nipigon, was killed
+by wolves and completely devoured. The snow showed a terrible
+struggle, in which four large wolves had been killed by the
+carrier.
+
+In Russia and in France in the days preceding the use of modern
+breech-loading firearms, the gray wolves of Europe were very bold,
+and a great many people were killed by them.
+
+Killings by Wild Beasts in India. The killing by wild beasts of
+unarmed and defenseless native men, women and children in India is
+a very different matter from man-killing in resourceful and
+dangerous North America. The annual slaughter by wild beasts in
+Hindustan and British Burma is a fairly good index of the courage
+and aggressiveness of the parties of the first part. In India
+during the year 1878, in which we were specially interested, the
+totals were as follows:
+
+Persons killed by elephants, 33; tigers, 816; leopards, 300;
+bears, 94; wolves, 845; hyenas, 33; snakes, 16,812.
+
+Of course such slaughter as this by the ridiculous hyenas and the
+absurd sloth bears of India is possible only in a country wherein
+the swarming millions of people are universally defenseless, and
+children are superabundant.
+
+As a corollary to the above figures, a comparison of them with the
+roster of wild animals killed and paid for is of some interest.
+The dangerous beasts destroyed were as follows:
+
+Elephants, 1; tigers, 1,493; leopards, 3,387; bears, 1,283;
+wolves, 5,067; hyenas, 1,202; serpents, 117,782.
+
+The Fighting Spirit in Baboons. In the first analysis, we find
+that courage is an individual trait, and that so far as we know,
+it never characterizes all the individuals of any one species. The
+strongest and the best armed of men and beasts usually are
+accounted the bravest ones of earth. The defenseless ones do well
+to be timid, to avoid hostilities and to flee from conflict to
+avoid being destroyed. It is just as much the duty of a
+professional mother to flee and to hide, in order to save her own
+life, as it is for "the old he-one" to threaten and to fight.
+
+At the same time, there are many species which are concededly
+courageous, as species. In making up this list I would place first
+of all the baboons of eastern Africa, whom I regard collectively
+as the most bold and reckless fighters per pound avoirdupois to be
+found in the whole Order Primates. They have weapons, agility,
+strength and cyclonic courage. On no other basis could they have
+so long survived _on land_ in a country full of lions,
+leopards, cheetahs, hyenas and wild dogs.
+
+In order to appreciate the fighting spirit of a male baboon, the
+observer need only come just once in actual touch with one. A
+dozen times I have been seized by a powerful baboon hand shot out
+with lightning quickness between or under his cage bars. The
+combined strength and ferocity of the grab, and the grip on the
+human hand or arm, is unbelievable until felt, and this with an
+accompaniment of glaring eyes, snarling lips and nerve-ripping
+voice is quite sufficient to intimidate any ordinary man.
+
+But even in the courage and belligerency of baboons, there are
+some marked differences between species. I rank them as follows:
+
+The most fierce and dangerous species is the East African baboon.
+
+The next for courage is the Rhodesian species.
+
+The spectacular hamadryas baboon is a very good citizen. The
+long-armed yellow species makes very little trouble, and
+
+The small golden baboon is the best-behaved of them all.
+
+Courage in the Great Apes. After forty years of ape study, with
+many kinds of evidence, I am convinced that the courage and the
+alleged ferocity of the gorilla has been much over-rated. I
+believe this is due to the influence upon the human mind of the
+great size and terrifying aspect of the animal.
+
+Of all the men whom I have known or read, the late R. L. Garner
+knew by far the most of gorilla habits and character by personal
+observation in the gorilla jungles of equatorial Africa. And
+never, in several years of intimate contact with Mr, Garner did he
+so much as once put forth a statement or an estimate that seemed
+to me exaggerated or overcolored.
+
+In our many discussions of gorilla character Mr. Garner always
+represented that animal as very shy, wary of observation by man,
+profoundly cunning in raiding _in darkness_ the banana
+plantations of man's villages, and most carefully avoiding
+exposures by daylight. He described the gorilla as practically
+never attacking men unless first attacked by them, and fleeing
+unless forcibly brought to bay. He told me of are doubtable
+African tribesman who once captured a baby gorilla on the ground
+by suddenly attacking the mother with his club and beating her so
+successfully that she fled from him and abandoned her young.
+"But," said Mr. Garner, "there is only one tribe in Africa that
+could turn out a man who would attempt a feat like that."
+
+That the gorilla can and will fight furiously and effectively when
+brought to bay is well known, and never denied.
+
+Of the apes I have known in captivity, the chimpanzees are by far
+the most aggressive, courageous and dangerous. A vigorous male
+specimen over eight years of age is more dangerous than a lion,
+or tiger, or grizzly bear, and _far more anxious_ to fight
+something. I think that even if our Boma were muzzled, no five men
+of my acquaintance could catch him and tie his hands and feet.
+
+The orang-utan is only half the fighter that the chimpanzee is.
+Even the adult males are not persistently aggressive, or inflamed
+by savage desires to hurt somebody.
+
+Courage in Elephants as an Asset. In all portions of India wherein
+tiger hunting with elephants is practiced, elephants with good
+courage are at a premium. No elephant is fit to carry a howdah in
+a line of beaters, with a valuable sahib on board, unless its
+courage can stand the acid test of a wounded tiger's charge. When
+an elephant can endure without panic an infuriated tiger climbing
+up its frontispiece to get at the unhappy mahout and the hunter,
+that elephant belongs in the courageous class. The cowardly
+elephant screams in terror, bolts for the rear, and if there is a
+tree in the landscape promptly wrecks the howdah and the sportsman
+against its lower branches.
+
+A "rogue" elephant always reminds me of my Barbados boatman's
+description of a pugnacious friend: "De trouble is, he am too
+brave!" A rogue elephant will attack anything from a wheelbarrow
+to a hut, and destroy it. The peak of rogue ambition was reached
+on a railway in Burma, near Ban Klap, in March 1908, when a rogue
+elephant "on hearing the locomotive whistle, trumpeted loudly and
+then, lowering his head, charged the oncoming train. The impact
+was tremendous. Such was the impetus of the great pachyderm that
+the engine was partially derailed, the front of the smoke-box
+shattered as far as the tubes, the cow-catcher was crushed into a
+shapeless piece of iron, and other damages of minor importance
+were sustained. The train was going thirty-four miles per hour,
+and the engine alone weighed between forty and fifty tons.
+
+"Of course the elephant was killed by the shock, its head being
+completely smashed.... It is believed that this particular rogue
+had been responsible for considerable damage to villages in the
+vicinity of Lopbusi. A number of houses have been pulled down
+recently and havoc wrought in other ways."
+
+On another occasion a vicious rogue elephant elected to try
+conclusions with a railway train. In 1906, on the Korat branch of
+the Siamese State Railway, a bull elephant attacked a freight
+train running at full speed. He charged the rushing locomotive,
+with the result that the locomotive and several cars were derailed
+and sent down the side of the grade, and two persons were killed.
+The elephant was killed outright and buried under the wreck of the
+train. This occurred in open country, where there was no excuse
+for an elephant on the track, and therefore the charge of the
+rogue was wholly gratuitous.
+
+Captive elephants whose managers are too humane to punish them for
+manifestations of meanness become spoiled by their immunity, just
+as mean children are spoiled when fond and foolish parents feel
+that their little jackets are too sacred ever to be tanned. Such
+complete immunity is as bad for bad elephants as for bad
+children, but in practice the severe punishment of an elephant
+with real benefit to the animal is next door to an impossibility,
+and so we never attempt it. We do, however, inflict mild
+punishments, of the fourth order of efficiency.
+
+Animals and Men. Among the animals that are most courageous
+against man are the species and individuals that are most familiar
+with him, and feel for him both contempt and hatred. The cat
+scratches, the bad dog bites, the vicious horse kicks or bites,
+and the mean pet bear, tiger, ape, leopard, bison or deer will
+attempt injury or murder whenever they think the chance has
+arrived. I know a lady whose pet monkey is a savage and mean
+little beast, and because she never thrashes it as it deserves,
+both of her arms from wrist to elbow have been scarified by its
+teeth.
+
+Mr. E. R. Sanborn, official photographer of the Zoological Park,
+once made an ingenious and also terrifying experiment. He made an
+excellent dummy keeper, stood it up, and tied it fast against the
+fence inside the yard of our very large and savage male Grevy
+Zebra. Then he posed his moving picture camera in a safe place,
+and the keeper turned the zebra into the yard. The moment the
+bad zebra caught sight of the presumptive keeper,--at last within
+his power,--he rushed at the dummy with glaring eyes and open
+mouth, and seized his victim by the head. With furious efforts he
+tore the dummy loose from its moorings, whirled it into the middle
+of the yard, where in a towering rage he knelt upon it, bit and
+tore its heart out. Of course the unfortunate dummy perished. The
+zebra reveled in his triumph, and altogether it was a fearsome
+sight.
+
+CAUTION. A thoroughly cowardly horse _never_ should be
+ridden, nor driven to anything so light that a runaway is
+possible. Such animals are too expensive both to human life and to
+property. A dangerous horse can be just as great a risk as a bad
+lion or bear.
+
+
+
+IV.--THE BASER PASSIONS
+
+XXII
+
+FEAR AS A RULING PASSION
+
+
+If we were asked, "Which one may be called the ruling passion of
+the wild animal?" we would without hesitation answer,--it is fear.
+
+From the cradle to the grave, every strictly wild animal lives,
+day and night, in a state of fear of bodily harm, and dread of
+hunger and famine.
+
+"Now the 'free, wild life' is a round of strife, And of
+ceaseless hunger and fear; And the life in the wild of the
+animal child Is not all skittles and beer."
+
+The first thing that the wild baby learns, both by precept and
+example, is safety first! When the squalling and toddling bear cub
+first goes abroad, the mother bear is worried and nervous for fear
+that in a sudden and dangerous emergency the half-helpless little
+one will not be able to make a successful get-away when the alarm-
+signal snort is given. During the first, and most dangerous, days
+in the life of the elk, deer and antelope fawn, the first care of
+the mother is to hide her offspring in a spot cunningly chosen
+beside a rock, beside a log, or in thick bushes. In the absence of
+all those she looks for a depression in the earth wherein the fawn
+can lie without making a hump in the landscape. The first impulse
+of the fawn,--even before nursing if the birth occurs in
+daylight,--is to fold its long legs, short body and reptilian neck
+into a very small package, hug the earth tightly, close its eyes
+and lie absolutely motionless until its mother gives the signal to
+arise and sup. Such infants may lie for long and weary hours
+without so much as moving an ear; and the anxious mother strolls
+away to some distance to avoid disclosing her helpless offspring.
+
+Now, suppose you discover and touch an elk or a deer fawn while
+thus hiding. What will it do? Nine times out of ten it will bound
+up as if propelled by steel springs, and go off like an arrow from
+a bow, dashing in any direction that is open and leads straight
+away. The horrified mother will rush into view in dangerously near
+proximity, and I have seen a wild white-tailed deer doe tear
+madly up and down in full view and near by, to attract the danger
+to herself.
+
+Thousands of men and boys have seen a mother quail flop and
+flutter and play wounded, to lead the dangerous boy away from her
+brood of little quail mites, and work the ruse so daringly and
+successfully as to save both her babies and herself. I well
+remember my surprise and admiration when a mother quail first
+played that trick upon me. I expected to pick her up,--and forgot
+all about the chicks,--until they were every one safely in hiding,
+and then Mrs. Quail gave me the laugh and flew away.
+
+Was it strategy? Was it the result of quail thought and reason? Or
+did it come by heredity, just like walking? To deny the cold facts
+in the quail case is to discredit our own ability to reason and be
+honest.
+
+Fear is the ruling emotion alike of the most timid creatures, and
+also the boldest. Of course each wild animal keeps a mental list
+of the other animals of which he is not afraid; and the predatory
+animal also keeps a card catalogue of those which he may safely
+attack when in need of food.
+
+But, with all due consideration to mighty forearm, to deadly claws
+and stabbing fangs, there is (I think) absolutely no land animal
+that is not afraid of something. Let us progressively consider a
+few famous species near at hand.
+
+The savage and merciless weasel fears the fox, the skunk, the wolf
+and the owl. The skunk fears the coyote which joyously kills him
+and devours all of him save his jaws and his tail. The marten,
+mink and fisher have mighty good reason to fear the wolverine, who
+in his turn cheerfully gives the road to the gray wolf. The wolf
+and the lynx carefully avoid the mountain lion and the black bear,
+and the black bear is careful not to get too close to a grizzly.
+Today a cotton-tail rabbit is not more afraid of a hound than a
+grizzly bear is of a man. The polar bear once was bold in the
+presence of man; but somebody has told him about breech-loading
+high power rifles; and now he, too, runs in terror from every man
+that he sees. The lion, the tiger, the leopard and the jaguar all
+live in wholesome fear of man, and flee from him at sight. The
+lordly elephant does likewise, and so does the rhinoceros, save
+when he is in doubt about the identity of the biped animal and
+trots up to get certainty out of a nearer view. Col. Roosevelt
+became convinced, that most of the alleged "charging" of
+rhinoceroses was due to curiosity and poor vision, and the desire
+of rhinos to investigate at close range.
+
+Today the giant brown bears of Alaska exhibit less fear of man
+than any other land animals that we know, and many individuals
+have put themselves on record as dangerous fighters. And this
+opens the door to the great Alaskan controversy that for a year
+raged,--chiefly upon one side,--in certain Alaskan newspapers and
+letters.
+
+Early in 1920, certain parties in Alaska publicly asked people to
+believe that W. T. Hornaday in his "published works" had set up
+the Alaskan brown bear as "a harmless animal." All these
+statements and insinuations were notoriously false, but the
+repetition of them went on right merrily, even while the author's
+article portraying the savage and dangerous character of the brown
+bear was being widely circulated in the United States through
+_Boys' Life_ magazine.
+
+The indisputable facts regarding the temper of the great Alaskan
+brown bears are as follows: Usually, unless fired at, these big
+brown bears flee from man at sight of him, and by many experienced
+Alaskan bear hunters who can shoot they are not regarded as
+particularly dangerous, save when they are attacked by man, or
+think that they are to be attacked.
+
+They are just now the boldest of all bears, and the most
+dangerous.
+
+They often attack men who are hunting them, and have killed
+several.
+
+They have attacked a few persons who were not hunting.
+
+Where they are really numerous they are a menace and a nuisance to
+frontiersmen who need to traverse their haunts.
+
+In all places where Alaskan brown bears are quite too numerous for
+public safety, their numbers should thoroughly be reduced; and
+everywhere the bears of Alaska should be pursued and shot until
+the survivors acquire the wholesome respect for man that now is
+felt everywhere by the polar and the grizzly. Then the Alaskans
+will have peace, and our Alaskan enemies possibly will cease to
+try to discredit our intelligence.
+
+The most impressive exhibition of wild-animal fear that Americans
+ever have seen was furnished by the African motion pictures of
+Paul J. Rainey. They were taken from a blind constructed within
+close range of a dry river bed in northern British East Africa,
+where a supply of water was held, by a stratum of waterproof clay
+or rock, about four feet below the surface of the dry river bed.
+By industrious pawing the zebras had dug a hole down to the water,
+and to this one life-saving well wild animals of many species
+flocked from miles around. The camera faithfully recorded the
+doings of elephants, giraffes, zebras, hartebeests, gnus,
+antelopes of several species, wart-hogs and baboons.
+
+The personnel of the daily assemblage was fairly astounding, and
+to a certain extent the observer of those wonderful pictures can
+from them read many of the thoughts of the animals.
+
+Next to the plainly expressed desire to quench their thirst, the
+dominant thought in the minds of those animals, one and all, was
+the _fear of being attacked._ In some species this ever-
+present and harassing dread was a pitiful spectacle. I wish it
+might be witnessed by all those ultra-humane persons who think and
+say that the free wild animals are the only happy ones!
+
+With the possible exception of the sanguine-tempered elephants,
+all those animals were afraid of being seized or attacked while
+drinking. One and all did the same thing. An animal would approach
+the water-hole, nervously looking about for enemies. The fore feet
+cautiously stepped down, the head disappeared to reach the water,
+--but quickly shot upward again, to look for the enemies. It was
+alternately drink, look, drink, look, for a dozen quick
+repetitions, then a scurry for safety.
+
+Even the stilt-legged and long-necked giraffes went through that
+same process,--a mouthful of water greedily seized, and a fling of
+the head upward to stare about for danger. Group by group the
+animals of each species took their turns. The baboons drifted down
+over the steep rocky slope like a flock of skimming birds, and
+watched and drank by turn. Having finished, they paused not for
+idle gossip or play, but as swiftly as they came drifted up the
+slope and sought safety elsewhere.
+
+And yet, it was noticeable that during the whole of that
+astounding panorama of ferae naturae unalloyed by man's baleful
+influence, no species attacked another, there was no fighting, nor
+even any threatening of any kind. Had there been a white flag
+waving over that water-hole, the truce of the wild could not have
+been more perfect.
+
+Effect of Fear in Captive Animals. Among captive wild animals, by
+far the most troublesome are those that are obsessed by slavish
+fear of being harmed. The courageous and supremely confident
+grizzly or Alaskan brown bear is in his den a good-natured and
+reliable animal, who obeys orders when the keepers enter the den
+to do the daily housework and order him to "Get up out of here."
+The fear-possessed Japanese black bear, Malay sun bear and Indian
+sloth bear are the ones that are most dangerous, and that
+sometimes charge the keepers.
+
+Our famous "picture lion," Sultan, was serenely confident of his
+own powers, his nerves were steady and reliable, and he never
+cared to attack man or beast. Once when by the error of a fellow
+keeper the wrong chain was pulled, and the wrong partition door
+was opened, the working keeper bent his head, and broom in hand
+walked into what he thought was an empty cage. To his horror, he
+found himself face to face with Sultan, with only the length of
+the broom handle between them.
+
+The startled and helpless keeper stood still, and said in a calm
+voice, without batting an eye.
+
+"Hello, Sultan."
+
+Sultan calmly looked at him, wonderingly and inquiringly, but
+without even a trace of excitement; and feeling sure that the
+keeper did not mean to harm him, he seemed to have no thought of
+attacking.
+
+The keeper quietly backed through the low doorway, and gently
+closed the door. Had the keeper lost his nerve, _and shown
+it,_ there might have been a tragedy.
+
+Lions are the best of all carnivorous performing animals, because
+of their courage, serenity, self-confidence and absence of jumpy
+nerves. Leopards are the worst, and polar bears stand next, with
+big chimpanzees as a sure third. Beware of all three.
+
+Exceptions to the Rule of Fear. Fortunately for the wild animal
+world, there are some exceptions to the rule of fear. I will
+indicate the kinds of them, and students can supply the individual
+cases.
+
+Whenever a wild animal species inhabits a spot so remote and
+inaccessible that man's blighting hand never has fallen upon it,
+nor in any way influenced its life or its fortunes, that species
+knows no fear save from the warring elements, and from predatory
+animals. The wonderful giant penguins found and photographed
+near the south pole by Sir Ernest Shackleton never had seen nor
+heard of men, never had been attacked by predatory animals or birds.
+You may search this wide world over, and you will not find a more
+striking example of sublime isolation. Those penguins had been
+living in a penguin's paradise. The sea-leopard seals harmed them
+not, and until the arrival of the irrepressible British explorer the
+spell  of that antarctic elysium was unbroken.
+
+[Illustration
+with caption: PRIMITIVE PENGUINS ON THE ANTARCTIC CONTINENT,
+UNAFRAID OF MAN (From Sir Ernest Shackleton's "Heart of the
+Antarctic," by permission of William Heinemann and the J. B.
+Lippincott Company, publishers)]
+
+Those astounding birds knew no such emotion as fear. Under the
+impulse of the icy waves dashing straight up to the edge of the
+ice floes, those giant penguins shot out of the water, sped like
+catapulted birds curving through the air, and landed on their
+cushioned breasts high and dry, fully ten feet back from the edge
+of the floe. They flocked together, they waddled about erect and
+serene, heads high in air, and marched close up to the ice-bound
+ship to see what it was all about. Men and horses freely walked
+among them without exciting fear, and when the birds gathered in a
+vast assemblage the naturalists and photographers were welcomed
+everywhere.
+
+And indeed those birds were well-nigh the most fortunate birds in
+all the world. The men who found them were not low-browed
+butchers thinking only of "oil" or "fertilizer"; and they did not
+go to work at once to club all those helpless birds into masses of
+death and corruption. Those men wondered at them, laughed at them,
+photographed them, studied them,--and _left them in peace!_
+
+What a thundering contrast that was with the usual course of Man,
+the bloody savage, under such circumstances! The coast of Lower
+California once swarmed with seals, sea-lions and birds, and the
+waters of the Gulf were alive with whales. Now the Gulf and the
+shores of the Peninsula are as barren of wild life as Death
+Valley.
+
+The history of the whaling industry contains many sickening
+records of the wholesale slaughter by savage whalers of newly
+discovered herds of walrus, seals and sea birds that through
+isolation knew no fear, and were easily clubbed to death en masse.
+
+Wild creatures generally subscribe to the political principle that
+in union there is strength. In the minds of wild animals, birds
+and reptiles, great numbers of individuals massed together make
+for general security from predatory attacks. The herd with its
+many eyes and ears feels far greater security, and less harrowing
+fear, than the solitary individual who must depend upon his own
+two pair. The herd members relax and enjoy life; but the solitary
+bear, deer, sheep, goat or elephant does not. His nerves always
+are strung up to concert pitch, and while he feeds or drinks, or
+travels, he watches his step. A moving object, a strange-looking
+object, a strange sound or a queer scent in the air instantly
+fixes his attention, and demands analysis.
+
+On the North American continent the paramount fear of the wild
+animal is aroused to its highest pitch by what is called "man
+scent." And really, from the Battery to the North Pole, there is
+good reason for this feeling of terror, and high wisdom in fleeing
+fast and far.
+
+Said a wise old Ojibway Indian to Arthur Heming:
+
+"My son, when I smell some men, and especially some white men, I
+never blame the animals of the Strong Woods for taking fright and
+running away!"
+
+And civilization also has its terrors, as much as the wilderness.
+
+The fox, no matter what is the color of his coat, or his given
+name, is the incarnation of timidity and hourly fear. The
+nocturnal animals go abroad and work at night solely because they
+are afraid to work in the daytime. The beaver will cheerfully work
+in daytime if there is no prospect of observation or interference
+by man. The eagle builds in the top of the tallest tree, and the
+California condor high up on the precipitous side of a frightful
+canyon wall, because they are afraid of the things on the ground
+below. In the great and beautiful Animallai Forest (of Southern
+India), in 1877 the tiger walked abroad in the daytime, because
+men were few and weak, but in the populous and dangerous plains he
+did his traveling and killing at night, and lay closely hidden by
+day.
+
+Judging by the records of those who have hunted lions, I think
+that naturally the lion has more courage and less fear of bodily
+harm than any other wild animal of equal intelligence. By reason
+of his courage and self-confidence, as well as his majesty of
+physique, the lion is indeed well worthy to be called the King of
+Beasts.
+
+Among the few animals that seem naturally bold and ready to take
+risks, a notable species is the gray wolf. But is it really free
+from fear? Far from it. When in touch with civilization, from dawn
+until dark the wolf never forgets to look out for his own safety.
+He fears man, he fears the claws of every bear, he fears traps,
+poison and the sharp horns of the musk-ox. Individually the wolf
+is a contemptible coward. Rarely does he attack all alone an
+animal of his own size, unless it is a defenseless colt, calf or
+sheep. No animal is more safe from another than an able-bodied
+bull from the largest wolf. The wolf believes in mass action, not
+in single combat.
+
+But there is hope for the harassed and nerve-racked children of
+the wild. _The Game Sanctuary has come!_ Its area of safety,
+and its magic boundary, are quickly recognized by the harried
+deer, elk, sheep, goat and antelope, and right quickly do these
+and all other wild animals set up housekeeping on a basis of
+absolute safety. Talk about wild animals not "reasoning!" For
+shame. What else than REASON convinced the wild mountain sheep in
+the rocky fastnesses they once inhabited in terror that now they
+are SAFE, even in the streets of Ouray, and that "Ouray" rhymes
+with "your hay"?
+
+On account of his crimes against wild life, man (both civilized
+and savage) has much to answer for; but each wild life sanctuary
+that he now creates wipes out one chapter. From the Cape to Cairo,
+from the Aru Islands to Tasmania and from Banks Land to the
+Mexican boundary, they are growing and spreading. In them, save
+for the misdoings of the few uncaught and unkilled predatory
+animals, fear can die out, and the peace of paradise regained take
+its place.
+
+HYSTERIA OF FEAR IN A BEAR. Among wild animals in captivity
+hysteria, of the type produced by fear, is fairly common. A case
+noticed particularly on October 16, 1909, in a young female Kadiak
+bear, may well be cited as an example.
+
+The subject was then about two and one-half years old, and was
+caged in a large open den with four other bears of the same age.
+Of a European brown bear male, only a trifle larger than herself,
+she elected to be terror-stricken, as much so as ever a human
+child was in terror of every move of a brutal adult tormentor.
+Strangely enough, the cause of all this terror was wholly
+unconscious of it, and in the course of an observation lasting at
+least twenty minutes he made not one hostile movement. The greater
+portion of the time he idly moved about in the central space of
+the den, wholly oblivious of the alarm he was causing.
+
+The young Kadiak, in full flesh and vigor, first attracted my
+attention by her angry and terrified snorting, three quick snorts
+to the series. On the top of the rocks she raced to and fro,
+constantly eyeing the bear in the centre of the den. If he moved
+toward the rocks, she wildly plunged down, snorting and glaring,
+and raced to the front end of the den. If the bogey stopped to
+lick up a fallen leaf, she took it as a hostile act and wildly
+rushed past him and scrambled up the rocks at the farther end of
+the den. This was repeated about fifteen times in twenty minutes,
+accompanied by a continuous series of terrified snorts. She panted
+from exhaustion, frothed at the mouth, and acted like an animal
+half crazed by terror.
+
+Not once, however, did the bogey bear pay the slightest attention
+to her, and his sleepy manner was anything but terrifying.
+
+These spells of hysteria (without real cause) at last became so
+frequent that they seemed likely to injure the growth of a
+valuable animal, and finally the bogey bear was removed to another
+den.
+
+
+
+
+XXIII
+
+FIGHTING AMONG WILD ANIMALS
+
+
+Quarrels and combats between wild animals in a state of nature are
+almost invariably due to one of two causes--attack and defense in
+a struggle for prey, or the jealousy of males during the mating
+season. With rare exceptions, battles of the former class occur
+between animals of different Orders,--teeth and claws against
+horns and hoofs, for instance; and it is a fight to the death.
+Hunger forces the aggressor to attack something, and the intended
+victim fights because it is attacked. The question of good or ill
+temper does not enter in. On both sides it is a case of "must,"
+and neither party has any option. Such combats are tests of
+agility, strength, and staying powers, and, in a few cases, of
+thickness of bone and hide.
+
+How Orang-Utans Fight. Of the comparatively few animals which do
+draw blood of their own kind through ill temper or jealousy, I
+have never encountered any more given to internecine strife than
+orang-utans. Their fighting methods, and their love of fighting,
+are highly suggestive of the temper and actions of the human
+tough. They fight by biting, and usually it is the fingers and
+toes that suffer. Of twenty-seven orang-utans I shot in Borneo,
+and twelve more that were shot for me by native hunters, five were
+fighters, and had had one or more fingers or toes bitten off in
+battle. Those specimens were taken in the days when the museums of
+America were one and all destitute of anthropoid apes.
+
+A gorilla, chimpanzee, or orang-utan, being heavy of body, short
+of neck, and by no means nimble footed, cannot spring upon an
+adversary, choose a vulnerable spot, and bite to kill; but what it
+lacks in agility it makes up in length and strength of arm and
+hand. It seizes its antagonist's hand, carries it to its own
+mouth, and bites at the fingers. Usually, the bitten finger is
+severed as evenly as by a surgeon's amputation, and heals quite as
+successfully.
+
+I never saw two big orang-utans fighting, but I have had several
+captive ones seize my arm and try to bring my fingers within
+biting distance. The canine teeth of a full grown male orang,
+standing four feet four inches in height, and weighing a hundred
+and fifty pounds or more, are just as large and dangerous as the
+teeth of a bear of the same size, and the powerful incisors have
+one quality which the teeth of a bear do not possess. A bear
+pierces or tears an antagonist with his canines, but very rarely
+bites off anything. An orang-utan bites off a finger as evenly as
+a boy nips off the end of a stick of candy.
+
+When orang-utans fight, they also attack each other's faces, and
+often their broad and expansive lips suffer severely. My eleventh
+orang bore the scars of many a fierce duel in the tree-tops. A
+piece had been bitten out of the middle of both his lips, leaving
+in each a large, ragged notch. Both his middle fingers had been
+taken off at the second joint, and his feet had lost the third
+right toe, the fourth left toe, and the end of one hallux. His
+back, also, had sustained a severe injury, which had retarded his
+growth. This animal we called "The Desperado."
+
+Orang No. 34 had lost the entire edge of his upper lip. It had
+been bitten across diagonally, but adhered at one corner, and
+healed without sloughing off, so that during the last years of his
+life a piece of lip two inches long hung dangling at the corner of
+his mouth. He had also suffered the loss of an entire finger. No.
+36 had lost a good sized piece out of his upper lip, and the first
+toe had been bitten off his left foot.
+
+All these combats must have taken place in the tree-tops, for an
+adult orang-utan has never been known to descend to the earth
+except for water. In some manner it has become a prevalent
+belief that in their native jungles all three of the great apes--
+gorilla, orang, and chimpanzee--are dangerous to human beings, and
+often attack them with clubs. Nothing could be farther from the
+truth. According to the natives of West Africa, a gorilla or
+chimpanzee fights a hunter by biting his face and fingers, just as
+an orang-utan does. I believe that no sane orang ever voluntarily
+left the safety of a tree top to fight at a serious disadvantage
+on the ground; and I am sure an orang never struck a blow with a
+club, unless carefully taught to do so.
+
+WILD ANIMALS ARE NOT QUARRELSOME. As a species, man appears to be
+the most quarrelsome animal on the earth; and the same quality is
+strongly reflected in his most impressionable servant and
+companion, the domestic dog. Nearly all species of wild animals
+have learned the two foundation facts of the philosophy of life--
+that peace is better than war, and that if one must fight, it is
+better to fight outside one's own species. To this rule, however,
+wolves are a notable exception; for wherever wolves are abundant a
+wounded wolf is a subject for attack, and usually it is killed and
+eaten by the other members of the pack.
+
+I have observed the daily habits of many kinds of wild animals in
+their wild haunts, but in the field I never yet have seen either a
+fight between animals of the same species, or between two of
+different species. This may seem a very humiliating admission for
+a hunter to make, but it happens to be true. In the matter of
+finding big snakes, having exciting adventures, and witnessing
+combats between wild animals, there are some men who never are in
+luck.
+
+Now there was the "Old Shekarry,"--whose elephants, tigers, bison,
+bears, and sambar always were so much larger than mine. In his
+book, "Sport in Many Lands," he describes an affair of honor
+between a tiger and a bull bison, which was a truly ideal combat.
+The champions met by appointment,--by the light of the moon, in
+order to be safe from interference by the jungle police,--and they
+fought round after round, in the most orthodox prize ring style,
+under the Queensberry rules. So fairly did they fight that neither
+claimed a foul, and at the finish the two combatants retired to
+their respective corners and died simultaneously, "to the musical
+twitter of the night bird."
+
+Another writer has given a vivid description of a battle to the
+death between a wild bull and a grizzly bear; and we have read of
+several awful combats between black bears and alligators, in
+Florida; but some of us have yet to find either a black bear or an
+alligator that will stop to fight when he has an option on a line
+of retreat. When he has lived long,--say to the length of twelve
+feet,--the alligator is a hideous and terrorizing beast; but, for
+all that, he knows a thing or two; and a full grown, healthy black
+bear of active habit is about the last creature on earth that a
+'gator would care to meddle with. Pigs and calves, fawns, stray
+dogs, ducks and mud hens are antagonists more to his liking.
+
+The Fighting Tactics of Bears. In captivity, bears quarrel and
+scold one another freely, at feeding time, but seldom draw blood.
+I have questioned many old hunters, and read many books by bear
+hunters, but Ira Dodge, of Wyoming, is the only man I know who has
+witnessed a real fight between wild bears. He once saw a battle
+between a cinnamon and a grizzly over the carcass of an elk.
+
+In attacking, a bear does three things, and usually in the same
+order. First, he delivers a sweeping sidewise blow on the head of
+his antagonist; then he seizes him by the cheek, with the
+intention of shifting to the throat as quickly as it is safe to do
+so. His third move consists in throwing his weight upon his foe
+and bearing him to the earth, where he will have a better chance
+at his throat. If the fighters are fairly matched, the struggle is
+head to head and mouth to mouth. After the first onset, the paws
+do little or no damage, and the attacks of the teeth rarely go as
+far down as the shoulders. Often the assailant will seize his
+opponent's cheek and hold on so firmly that for a full minute the
+other can do nothing; but this means little.
+
+In combats between bears, the one that is getting mauled, or that
+feels outclassed, will throw himself upon the ground, flat upon
+his back, and proceed to fight with all four sets of claws in
+addition to his teeth. This attitude is purely defensive, and
+often is maintained until an opportunity occurs to attack with
+good advantage, or to escape. It is very difficult for a standing
+bear to make a serious impression upon an antagonist who lies upon
+his back, clawing vigorously with all four feet at the head of his
+assailant.
+
+Tiger Versus Grizzly Bear. Often is the question asked, "If a
+grizzly bear and a tiger should fight, which would whip the
+other?" One can answer only with opinions and deductions, not by
+reference to the records of the ring; for it seems that the
+terrors of the occident and the orient have never yet been matched
+in a fight to a finish.
+
+One of the heaviest tigers ever weighed, prior to 1878, scaled
+four hundred and ninety five pounds, and was as free from surplus
+flesh and fat as a prizefighter in the ring. He stood three feet
+seven inches at the shoulder, measured thirty-six inches around
+the jaws, and twenty inches around the forearm. Very few lions
+have ever exceeded his weight or dimensions. So far as I know, a
+wild grizzly bear of the largest size has never been scaled, but
+it is not at all certain that any California grizzly has weighed
+more than twelve hundred pounds. The silvertip of the Rocky
+Mountain region is a totally different animal, being smaller, as
+well as different in color.
+
+In a match between a grizzly and a tiger of equal weights, the
+activity of the latter, combined with the greater spread of his
+jaws and length of his canine teeth, would insure him the victory.
+The superior attack of the tiger would give him an advantage which
+it would probably be impossible to overcome. The blow of a
+tiger's paw is as powerful as that of a grizzly of the same size,
+though I doubt if it is any quicker in delivery. The quickness
+with which a seemingly clumsy bear can deliver a smashing blow is
+astonishing. Moreover, nature has given the grizzly a coat of fur
+which as a protection in fighting is almost equal to chain mail.
+Its length, combined with its density, makes it difficult for
+teeth or claws to cut through it, and in a struggle with a tiger,
+protective fur is only a fair compensation for a serious lack of
+leaping power in the hinder limbs. Though the tiger would win at
+equal weights, it is extremely probable that an adult California
+grizzly would vanquish a tiger of the largest size, for his
+greater bulk would far outweigh the latter's agility.
+
+The Great Cats as Fighters. Tigers, when well matched, fight head
+to head and mouth to mouth, as do nearly all other carnivora, and
+at the same time they strike with their front paws. One of the
+finest spectacles I ever witnessed was a pitched battle between
+two splendid tigers, in a cage which afforded them ample room.
+With loud, roaring coughs, they sprang together, ears laid tight
+to their heads, eyes closed until only sparks of green and yellow
+fire flashed through four narrow slits, and their upper lips
+snarling high up to clear the glittering fangs beneath. Coughing,
+snarling, and often roaring furiously, each sprang for the
+other's throat, but jaw met jaw until their teeth almost cracked
+together. They rose fully erect on their hind legs, with their
+heads seven feet high, stood there, and smashed away with their
+paws, while tufts of hair flew through the air, and the cage
+seemed full of sparks. Neither gave the other a chance to get the
+throat hold, nor indeed to do aught else than ward off calamity;
+and each face was a picture of fury.
+
+This startling combat lasted a surprisingly long time, without
+noticeable advantage to either side. Finally the tigers backed
+away from each other, and when at a safe distance apart dropped
+their front feet to the floor, growling savagely and licking their
+lips wherever a claw had drawn blood.
+
+Of all the wild animals that are preyed upon by lions, tigers,
+leopards, jaguars, and pumas, only half a dozen species do
+anything more than struggle to escape. The gaur and the wild
+buffalo of India are sufficiently vindictive in dealing with a
+human hunter whose aim is not straight, but both fly before the
+tiger, and count themselves lucky when they can escape with
+nothing worse to show than a collection of long slits on their
+sides and hind quarters made by his knife-like claws. They do not
+care to return to do battle for the sake of revenge, and seek to
+put the widest possible stretch of jungle between themselves and
+their dreaded enemy.
+
+The same is true of the African buffalo and the lion. As to the
+antelopes of Africa and the deer of India, what can they do but
+make a desperate effort to escape, and fly like the wind whenever
+they succeed? Of course many of these defenseless animals make a
+gallant struggle for their lives, and not a few succeed in
+throwing off their assailants and escaping. Even domestic cattle
+sometimes return to the hill country villages of southern India
+bearing claw marks on their sides--usually the work of young
+tigers, or of rheumatic old ones.
+
+Here is a deer and puma story. In the picturesque bad-lands of
+Hell Creek, Montana, I saw my comrade, Laton A. Huffman, kill a
+large mule deer buck that three months previously had been
+attacked by a puma. From above it, the great cat had leaped upon
+the back of the deer, and laid hold with teeth and claws. In its
+struggle for life the buck either leaped or fell off the edge of a
+perpendicular "cut bank," and landed upon its back, with the puma
+underneath. Evidently the puma was so seriously injured that it
+could not continue the struggle; but it surely left its ear-marks.
+
+One ear of the buck was fearfully torn. There was a big wound on
+the top of the neck, where the puma jaws had lacerated the skin
+and flesh; and both hind legs had been badly clawed by the
+assailant's hind feet. The main beam of the right antler had been,
+broken off half-way up, while the antlers were still in the
+velvet, which enabled us to fix the probable date of the
+encounter.
+
+In the great Wynaad forest I once got lost, and in toiling through
+a five acre patch of grass higher than my head, and so dense that
+it was not negotiable except by following the game trails, my
+simple old Kuramber and I came suddenly upon the scene of a great
+struggle. In the center of a space about twenty feet in diameter,
+on which the tall grass had been trampled flat, lay the remains of
+a sambar stag which had very recently been killed and eaten by a
+tiger. The neck had not been dislocated, and the sambar had fought
+long and hard. Evidently the tiger had lain in wait on the runway,
+and had failed to subdue the sambar by his first fierce onslaught.
+Now an angry stag with good antlers is no mean antagonist, and it
+is strange if the tiger in the case went through that struggle
+without a puncture in his tawny skin.
+
+In South Africa, Vaughan Kirby once found the dead bodies of a
+"patriarchal bull" sable antelope and a lion, "which had evidently
+been a fine specimen," lying close together, where the two
+animals had fallen after a great struggle. The sable antelope must
+have killed its antagonist by a lucky backward thrust of its long,
+curved horns as the lion fastened upon its back to pull it down.
+
+Mr. Kirby's dogs once disturbed a sanguinary struggle between a
+leopard and a wild boar, or "bush pig," which had well-nigh
+reached a finish. The old boar, when bayed by the dogs, was found
+to be most terribly mauled. Its tough skin hung literally in
+shreds from its neck and shoulders, presenting ghastly open
+wounds. The entrails protruded from a deep claw gash in the side,
+and the head was a mass of blood and dirt. "On searching around,"
+says Mr. Kirby, "we found unmistakable evidence of a life and
+death struggle. The ground was covered with gouts of blood and
+yellow hair, to some of which the skin (of the leopard) was still
+attached. Blood was splashed plentifully on the tree stems and the
+low brushwood, which for a space of a dozen yards around was
+trampled flat." The leopard had fled upon the approach of the
+dogs, leaving a trail of blood, which, though followed quickly,
+was finally lost in bad ground. It is no wonder that from the
+above and many other evidences equally good, Mr. Kirby considers
+the bush pig a remarkably courageous animal. He says that it was
+"never yet known to show the white feather," and declares that "a
+pig is never defeated until he is dead."
+
+The Combats of Male Deer. The sable antelope is one of the few
+exceptions to the well-nigh universal rule against fighting
+between wild animals of the same species. Of this species, Mr.
+Kirby says: "Sable antelope bulls fight most fiercely amongst
+themselves, and though I have never actually witnessed an
+encounter between them, I have often seen the results of such,
+evidenced by great gaping wounds that could have been made by
+nothing else than the horns of an opponent. I once killed a large
+bull with a piece of another's horn tip, fully three inches long,
+buried in its neck. In 1889 I shot an old bull on the Swinya with
+a terrible wound in its off shoulder, caused by a horn thrust."
+
+During the jealous flashes of the mating season, the males of
+several species of deer fight savagely. After a long period of
+inaction while the new antlers are developing--from April to
+September--the beginning of October finds the male deer, elk, or
+moose of North America with a new suit of hair, new horns, a
+swollen neck, and all his usual assertiveness. The crisp autumn
+air promotes a disposition to fight something, precisely as it
+inspires a sportsman to "kill something." During October and
+November, particularly, it is well for an unarmed man to give
+every antlered deer a wide berth.
+
+At this period, fights between the males of herds of mule deer,
+white-tailed deer and elk are of frequent occurrence, but in a
+wild state they rarely end in bloodshed or death, save from locked
+antlers. Many times, however, two bucks will come together, and
+playfully push each other about without being angry. Many pairs of
+bucks have been found with their antlers fast locked in death--and
+I never see a death lock without a feeling of grim satisfaction
+that neither of the quarrelsome brutes had had an opportunity to
+attack some defenseless man, and spear him to death.
+
+The antlers of the common white-tailed deer seem peculiarly
+liable to become interlocked so tightly that it is well-nigh
+impossible to separate them. And whenever this happens, the doom
+of both deer is sealed. Unless found speedily and killed, they
+must die of starvation. While it is quite true that two deer
+playing with their antlers may become locked fast, it is safe to
+say that the great majority meet their fate by charging each other
+with force sufficient to spring the beams of their antlers, and
+make the lock so perfect that no force they can exert will release
+it. A deer cannot pull back with the same power it exerts in
+plunging forward.
+
+All members of the deer family that I know follow the same natural
+law in regard to supremacy. Indeed, this is true of nearly all
+animals. Leadership is not always maintained by the largest and
+strongest member of a herd, but very often by the most pugnacious.
+Sometimes a herd of elk is completely tyrannized by an old doe,
+who makes the young bucks fly from her in terror, when one prod of
+their sharp antlers would quickly send her to the rear.
+
+When bucks in a state of freedom fight for supremacy, the weaker
+does not stay to be overthrown and speared to death by the victor.
+As soon as he feels that he is mastered he releases his antlers at
+the first opportunity, flings himself to one side, and either
+remains in the herd as an acknowledged subject of the victor, or
+else seeks fresh fields and pastures new.
+
+Battles in Zoological Parks. In captivity, where escape is
+impossible, it is no uncommon thing for elk to kill each other.
+In fact, with several adult males in a small enclosure, tragedies
+may always be expected in the autumn and early winter. The process
+is very simple. So long as the two elk can stand up and fight head
+to head, there are no casualties; but when one wearies and weakens
+before the other, its guard is broken. Then one strong thrust in
+its side or shoulder sends it to the earth, badly wounded; and
+before it can rise, it is generally stabbed to death with horn
+thrusts into its lungs and liver. But, as I said before, I have
+never known of a fatal duel between elk outside of a zoological
+garden or park.
+
+One of the most novel and interesting fights that has yet taken
+place in the New York Zoological Park was a pitched battle between
+two cow elk--May Queen and the Dowager. A bunch of black fungus
+suddenly appeared on the trunk of a tree, about twelve feet from
+the ground. My attention was first called to this by seeing May
+Queen, a fine young cow, standing erect on her hind legs in order
+to reach the tempting morsel with her mouth. A little later the
+Dowager, the oldest and largest cow elk in the herd, met her under
+the tree, whereupon the two made wry faces at each other, and
+champed their teeth together threateningly. Suddenly both cows
+rose on their hind legs, struck out viciously with their sharp
+pointed front hoofs, and, after a lively sparring bout, they
+actually clinched. The young cow got both front legs of the old
+cow between her own, where they were held practically helpless,
+and then with her own front hoofs she fiercely rained blows upon
+the ribs of her assailant. The Dowager backed away and fled,
+completely vanquished, with May Queen close upon her heels; and
+thus was the tyrannical rule of the senior cow overthrown forever.
+
+During the breeding season, our wild buffaloes of the great
+vanished herds were much given to fighting, and always through
+jealousy. The bulls bellowed until they could be heard for miles,
+tore up earth and threw it into the air, rolled their eyes, and
+often rushed together in a terrifying manner; but beyond butting
+their heads, pushing and straining until the weaker turned and
+ran, nothing came of it all. I have yet to find a man who ever saw
+a wild buffalo that had been wounded to the shedding of blood by
+another wild buffalo. It is probable that no other species ever
+fought so fiercely and did so little damage as the American bison.
+
+Elephants, Wolves, and Others. In ordinary life the Indian
+elephant is one of the most even-tempered of all animals. I have
+spent hours in watching wild herds in southern India, sometimes
+finding the huge beasts all around me, and in dangerously close
+proximity. Several times I could have touched a wild elephant with
+a carriage whip, had I possessed one. So far from fighting, I
+never saw an elephant threaten or even annoy another.
+
+Elephants, being the most intelligent of all animals in the matter
+of training, have been educated to fight in the arena, usually by
+pushing each other head to head. A fighting tusker can lord it
+over almost any number of tuskless elephants, because he can
+pierce their vitals, and they cannot pierce his. A female fights
+by hitting with her head, striking her antagonist amidships, if
+possible. Once when the late G. P. Sanderson was in a keddah,
+noosing wild elephants, and was assulted [sic] by a vicious
+tusker, his life was saved by a tame female elephant, whose boy
+driver caused her to attack the tusker with her head, and nearly
+bowl him over by the force of her blows upon his ribs.
+
+In captivity, wolves are the meanest brutes on earth, and in a
+wild state they are no better. As a rule, the stronger ones are
+ever ready to kill the weaker ones, and eat them, too. One night,
+our male Russian wolf killed his mate, and ate nearly half of her
+before morning. A fox or a wolf cub which thrusts one of its legs
+between the partition bars and into a wolf's den almost invariably
+gets it bitten off as close to the body as the biter can go. In
+the arctic regions, north of the Great Slave Lake, "Buffalo" Jones
+and George Rea fought wolves incessantly for several days, and
+every wolf they wounded was immediately killed and devoured by its
+pack mates.
+
+In captivity, a large proportion of mammals fight, more or less;
+and the closer the confinement, the greater their nervousness and
+irritability, and the more fighting. Monkeys fight freely and
+frequently. Serpents, lizards, and alligators rarely do, although
+large alligators are prone to bite off the tails or legs of their
+small companions, or even to devour them whole. Storks, trumpeter
+swans, darters, jays, and some herons are so quarrelsome and
+dangerous that they must be kept well separated from other
+species, to prevent mutilation and murder. In 1900, when a pair of
+trumpeter swans were put upon a lake in Prospect Park, Brooklyn,
+with three brown pelicans for associates, they promptly assailed
+the pelicans, dug holes in their backs, and killed all three. The
+common red squirrel is a persistent fighter of the gray species,
+and, although inferior in size, nearly always wins.
+
+A Fight Between a Whale and a Swordfish. One of the strangest wild
+animal combats on record was thus described in the Proceedings of
+the Zoological Society of London, for 1909.
+
+"Mr. Malcolm Maclaren, through Mr. C. Davies Sherborn, F. Z. S.,
+called the attention of the Fellows to an account of a fight
+between a whale and a swordfish observed by the crew of the
+fishing-boat 'Daisy' in the Hauraki Gulf, between Ponui Island and
+Coromandel, as reported in the 'Auckland Weekly News,' 19th Nov.,
+1908. A cow whale and her calf were attacked by a 12 ft. 6 in.
+swordfish, the object of the fish being the calf. The whale
+plunged about and struck in all directions with her flukes.
+Occasionally the fins of the swordfish were seen as he rose from a
+dive, his object apparently being to strike from below. For over
+a quarter of an hour the whale circled round her calf, lashing
+furiously and churning up the water so that the assailant was
+unable to secure a good opportunity for a thrust. At last, after
+a fruitless dive, the swordfish came close up and made a thrust at
+the calf, but received a blow from the whale's flukes across the
+back, which apparently paralyzed it. It was killed and hauled on
+board the boat without difficulty, while the whale and calf went
+off towards Coromandel with splashings and plungings. The whale's
+blow had almost knocked off the back fin of the swordfish, and
+heavily bruised the flesh around it. No threshers accompanied the
+swordfish."
+
+Beyond question, as firearms and hunters multiply, all wild
+animals become more timid, less inclined to attack man, and also
+less inclined to attack one another. The higher creatures are the
+most affected by man's destructiveness of animal life, and the
+struggle for existence has become so keen that fighting for the
+glory of supremacy, or as a pastime, will soon have no important
+place in the lives of wild animals.
+
+
+
+
+XXIV
+
+WILD ANIMAL CRIMINALS AND CRIME
+
+
+Many human beings are "good" because they never have been under
+the harrow of circumstances, nor sufficiently tempted to do wrong.
+It is only under the strain of strong temptation that human
+character is put through the thirty-third degree and tried out. No
+doubt a great many of us could be provoked to join a mob for
+murder, or forced to steal, or tortured into homicidal insanity.
+It is only under the artificial conditions of captivity, with loss
+of freedom, exemption from the daily fear of death, abundant food
+without compensating labor, and with every want supplied, that the
+latent wickedness of wild creatures comes to the surface. A
+captive animal often reveals traits never recognized in the free
+individual.
+
+"Satan finds some mischief still for idle hands to do."
+
+These manifestations are of many kinds; but we propose to consider
+the criminal tendencies of wild animals both free and captive.
+
+The persistence of the mental and moral parallelism between men
+and wild animals is a source of constant surprise. In a state of
+freedom, untrammeled by anything save the fear of death by
+violence, the deer or the mountain sheep works out in his own way
+his chosen scheme for the survival of the fittest,--himself. In
+the wilds we see very few manifestations of the criminal instinct.
+A fight between wild elk bulls for the supremacy of a herd is not
+a manifestation of murder lust, but of obedience to the
+fundamental law of evolution that the largest, the strongest
+and the most courageous males of every herd shall do the breeding.
+The killing of natural prey for daily food is not murder. A
+starving wolf on the desolate barren grounds may even kill and
+devour a wounded pack-mate without becoming a criminal by that act
+alone. True, such a manifestation of hard-heartedness and bad
+taste is very reprehensible; but its cause is hunger, not sheer
+blackness of heart. Among wild animals, the wanton killing of a
+member of the killer's own species would constitute murder in the
+first degree, and so is all unnecessary and wanton killing outside
+the killer's own species.
+
+To many a wild animal there comes at tunes the murder lust which
+under the spur of opportunity leads to genuine crime. In some of
+the many cases that have come under my notice, the desire to
+commit murder for the sake of murder has been as sharply defined
+as the fangs or horns of the criminal. Of the many emotions of
+wild animals which are revealed more sharply in captivity than in
+a state of nature, the crime-producing passions, of jealousy,
+hatred, desire for revenge, and devilish lust for innocent blood,
+are most prominent. In the management of large animals in
+captivity, the criminal instinct is quite as great a trouble-
+breeder and source of anxiety as are wild-animal diseases, and the
+constant struggle with the elements.
+
+In many cases there is not the slightest premonitory manifestation
+of murderous intent on the part of a potential criminal. Indeed,
+with most cunning wisdom, a wild-animal murderer will often
+conceal his purpose until outside interference is an
+impossibility, and the victim is entirely helpless. These
+manifestations of fiendish cunning and premeditation are very
+exasperating to those responsible for the care of animals in
+captivity.
+
+In every well regulated zoological park, solitary confinement is
+regarded as an unhappy or intolerable condition. Animals that live
+in herds and groups in large enclosures always exercise more, have
+better appetites, and are much more contented and happy than
+individuals that are singly confined.
+
+To visitors, a happy and contented community of deer, antelopes,
+bears, wolves, or birds is a source of far more mental
+satisfaction than could be found in any number of solitary
+animals. A small pen with a solitary animal in it at once suggests
+the prison-and-prisoner idea, and sometimes arouses pity and
+compassion rather than pleased admiration. The peaceful herd or
+flock is the thing to strive for as the highest ideal attainable
+in an exhibition of wild animals. But mark well the difficulties.
+
+_All the obstacles encountered in carrying out the community
+idea are created by the evil propensities of the animals
+themselves._ Among the hoofed animals generally, every pair of
+horns and front hoofs is a possible storm-center. No keeper knows
+whether the members of his herd of deer will live together in
+peace and contentment until tomorrow, or whether, on any autumn or
+winter night, a buck will suddenly develop in his antlered head
+the thought that it is a good time to "kill something."
+
+In the pairing season we always watch for trouble, and the danger
+signal always is up. In October a male elk may become ever so
+savage, and finally develop into a raging demon, dangerous to man
+and beast; but when he first manifests his new temper openly and
+in the broad light of day, we feel that he is treating fairly both
+his herd-mates and his keepers. If he gives fair warning to the
+world about him, we must not class him as a mean criminal, no
+matter what he may do later on. It is our duty to corral him at
+night according to the violence of his rage. If we separate him
+from the herd, and he tears a fence in pieces and kills his rival,
+that is honest, open warfare, not foul murder. But take the
+following case.
+
+In October, 1905, the New York Zoological Park received from the
+state of Washington a young mule deer buck and two does. Being
+conspicuous members of the worst species of "difficult" deer to
+keep alive at Atlantic tidewater, and being also very thin and
+weak, it required the combined efforts of several persons to keep
+them alive. For six months they moped about their corral, but at
+last they began to improve. The oldest doe gave birth to two fawns
+which actually survived. But, even when the next mating season
+began, the buck continued to be lanquid and blase. At no time did
+he exhibit signs of temper, of even suspicious vigor.
+
+In the middle of the night of November 6, 1906, without the
+slightest warning, he decided to commit a murder, and the mother
+of the two nursing fawns was selected as the victim. Being weak
+from the rearing of her offspring, she was at his mercy. He gored
+her most savagely, about twenty times, and killed her.
+
+That was deliberate, fiendish and cowardly murder. The killing of
+any female animal by her male consort is murder; but there are
+circumstances wherein the plea of temporary insanity is an
+admissible defense. In the autumn, male members of the deer
+family _often become temporarily insane and irresponsible,_
+and should be judged accordingly. With us, sexual insanity is a
+recognized disease.
+
+Such distressing cases as the above are so common that whenever I
+go deer-hunting and kill a lusty buck, the thought occurs to me,--
+"another undeveloped murderer, perhaps!"
+
+The most exasperating thing about these corral murders is the
+cunning treachery of the murderers. Here is another typical case:
+For three years a dainty little male Osceola deer from Florida was
+as gentle as a fawn and as harmless as a dove. But one crisp
+morning Keeper Quinn, to whom every doe in his charge is like a
+foster-daughter, was horrified at finding blood on the absurd
+little antlers of the Osceola pet. One of the females lay dead in
+a dark corner where she had been murdered during the night; and
+this with another and older buck in the same corral which might
+fairly have been regarded as an offensive rival.
+
+The desire to murder for the sake of killing is born in some
+carnivorous animals, and by others it is achieved. Among the
+largest and finest of the felines, the lions and tigers, midnight
+murders very rarely occur. We never have known one. Individual
+dislike is shown boldly and openly, and we are given a fair chance
+to prevent fatalities. Among the lions, tigers, leopards, jaguars
+and pumas of the New York Zoological Park, there has been but one
+murder. That was the crime of Lopez, the big jaguar, who richly
+deserved instant death as a punishment. It was one of the most
+cunning crimes I have ever seen among wild animals, and is now
+historic.
+
+For a year Lopez _pretended,_ ostentatiously, to be a good-
+natured animal! Twenty times at least he acted the part of a
+playful pet, inviting me to reach in and stroke him. At last we
+decided to give him a cage-mate, and a fine adult female jaguar
+was purchased. The animals actually tried to caress each other
+through the bars, and the big male completely deceived us, one and
+all.
+
+At the end of two days it was considered safe to permit the female
+jaguar to enter the cage of Lopez. She was just as much deceived
+as we were. An animal that is afraid always leaves its traveling-
+cage slowly and unwillingly, or refuses to leave it at all. When
+the two sets of doors were opened, the female joyously walked into
+the cage of her treacherous admirer. In an instant, Lopez rushed
+upon her, seized her whole neck in his powerful jaws, and crushed
+her cervical vertebrae by his awful bite. We beat him over the
+head; we spiked him; we even tried to brain him; but he held her,
+as a bull-dog would hold a cat, until she was dead. He had
+determined to murder her, but had cunningly concealed his purpose
+until his victim was fully in his power.
+
+Bears usually fight "on the square," openly and above-board,
+rarely committing foul murder. If one bear hates another, he
+attacks at the very first opportunity, He does not cunningly wait
+to catch the offender at a disadvantage and beyond the possibility
+of rescue. Sometimes a captive bear kills a cage-mate or mauls a
+keeper, but not by the sneaking methods of the human assassin who
+shoots in the dark and runs away.
+
+I do not count the bear as a common criminal, even though at rare
+intervals he kills a cage-mate smaller and weaker than himself.
+One killing of that kind, done by Cinnamon Jim to a small black
+bear that had annoyed him beyond all endurance, was inflicted as a
+legitimate punishment, and was so recorded. The attack of two
+large bears, a Syrian and a sloth bear, upon a small Japanese
+black bear, in which the big pair deliberately attempted to
+disembowel the small victim, biting him only in the abdomen,
+always has been a puzzle to me. I cannot fathom the idea which
+possessed those two ursine minds; but I have no doubt that some of
+the book-making men who read the minds of wild animals as if they
+were open books could tell me all about it.
+
+On the ice-pack in front of his stone hut at the north end of the
+Franz Josef Archipelago Nansen saw an occurrence that was plain
+murder. A large male polar bear feeding upon a dead walrus was
+approached across the ice-pack by two polar-bear cubs. The
+gorging male immediately stopped feeding and rushed toward the
+small intruders. They turned and fled wildly; but the villain
+pursued them, far out upon the ice. He overtook them, killed both,
+and then serenely returned to his solitary feast.
+
+In February, 1907, a tragedy occurred in the Zoological Park which
+was a close parallel of the Lopez murder. It was a case in which
+my only crumb of satisfaction was in my ability to say, "I told
+you so,"--than which no consolation can be more barren.
+
+For seven years there had lived together in the great polar bears'
+den of the Zoological Park two full-grown, very large and fine
+polar bears. They came from William Hagenbeck's great group, and
+both were males. Their rough-and-tumble wrestling, both in the
+swimming pool and out of it, was a sight of almost perennial
+interest; and while their biting and boxing was of the roughest
+character, and frequently drew blood, they never got angry, and
+never had a real fight.
+
+In the autumn of 1906 one of the animals sickened and died, and
+presently the impression prevailed that the survivor was lonesome.
+The desirability of introducing a female companion was spoken of,
+but I was afraid to try the experiment.
+
+By and by, Mr. Carl Hagenbeck, who had handled about forty polar
+bears to my one, wrote to us, offering a fine female polar as a
+mate to the survivor. She was conceded to be one-third smaller
+than the big male, but was fully adult. Without loss of time I
+answered, declining to make the purchase, on the ground that our
+male bear would kill the female. It was my belief that even if he
+did not at once deliberately murder her, he soon would wear her
+out by his rough play.
+
+Mr. Hagenbeck replied with the assurance that, in his opinion, all
+would be well; that, instead of a tragedy taking place, the male
+would be delighted with a female companion, and that the pair
+would breed. As convincing proof of the sincerity of his views,
+Mr. Hagenbeck offered to lose half the purchase price of the
+female bear in the event that my worst fears were realized.
+
+I asked the opinion of our head keeper of bears, and after due
+reflection he said:
+
+"Why, no; I don't believe he'd kill her. He's not a _bad_
+bear at all. I think we could work it so that there would be no
+great trouble."
+
+Mr. Hagenbeck's son also felt sure there would be no tragedy.
+
+Quite against my own judgment of polar-bear character, but in
+deference to the expert opinion arrayed against mine, I finally
+yielded. The female bear was purchased, and on her arrival she was
+placed for three weeks in the large shifting-cage which connects
+with the eastern side of the great polar bears' den.
+
+The two animals seemed glad to see each other. At once they
+fraternized through the bars, licked each other's noses, and ate
+their meals side by side. At night the male always slept as near
+as possible to his new companion. There was not a sign of ill
+temper; but, for all that, my doubts were ever present.
+
+At last, after three full weeks of close acquaintance, it was
+agreed that there was nothing to be gained by longer delay in
+admitting the female to the large den. But we made preparations
+for trouble. The door of the sleeping-den was oiled and overhauled
+and put in thorough working order, so that if the female should
+dash into it for safety, a keeper could instantly slide the
+barrier and shut her in. We provided pike-poles, long iron bars,
+lariats, meat, and long planks a foot wide. Heartily wishing
+myself a hundred miles away, I summoned all my courage and gave
+the order:
+
+"Open her door, a foot only, and let her put her head out. Keep
+him away."
+
+The female bear had not the slightest fear or premonition of
+danger. Thrusting her head through the narrow opening, she looked
+upon the world and the open sky above, and found that it was good.
+She struggled to force the door open wider; and the male stood
+back, waiting.
+
+"Let her go!" Forcing the door back with her own eager strength,
+she fearlessly dropped the intervening eighteen inches to the
+floor of the den, and was free. The very _next second_ the
+male flung his great bulk upon her, and the tragedy was on.
+
+I would not for five thousand dollars see such a thing again. A
+hundred times in the twenty minutes that followed I bitterly
+regretted my folly in acting contrary to my own carefully formed
+conclusions regarding the temper, the strength, and the mental
+processes of that male bear.
+
+He never left her alone for ten seconds, save when, at five or six
+different times, we beat him off by literally ramming him away.
+When she first fell, the slope of the floor brought her near the
+cage bars, which gave us a chance to fight for her. We beat him
+over the head; we drove big steel spikes into him; and we rammed
+him with planks, not caring how many bones we might break. But
+each time that we beat him off, and the poor harried female rose
+to her feet, he flung himself upon her anew, crushed her down upon
+the snow, and fought to reach her throat!
+
+Gallantly the female fought for her life, with six wild men to
+help her. After a long battle,--it seemed like hours, but I
+suppose it was between twenty and thirty minutes, the male bear
+recognized the fact that so long as the female lay near the bars
+his own punishment would continue and the end would be postponed.
+Forthwith he seized his victim and dragged her inward and down to
+the ice that covered the swimming-pool in the centre of the den,
+beyond our reach. The floor of the den was so slippery from ice
+and snow that it was utterly unsafe for any of our men to enter
+and try to approach the now furious animal within striking
+distance.
+
+Very quickly some choice pieces of fresh meat were thrown within
+six feet of the bears, in the hope that the male would be tempted
+away from his victim. In vain! Then, with all possible haste,
+Keeper Mulvehill coiled a lasso, bravely entered the den, and with
+the first throw landed the noose neatly around the neck of the
+male bear. In a second it was jerked taut, the end passed through
+the bars, and ten eager arms dragged the big bear away from his
+victim and close up to the bars. Another lariat was put on him to
+guard against breakages, and no bear ever missed being choked to
+death by a narrower margin than did that one. That morsel of
+revenge was sweet. While he was held thus, two men went in and
+attached a rope to the now dying female, and she was quickly
+dragged into the shifting-cage.
+
+But the rescue came too late. At the last moment on the ice, the
+canine teeth of the big bear had severed the jugular vein of the
+female, and in two minutes after her rescue she was dead. It is
+my belief that at first the male did not intend to murder the
+female. I think his first impulse was to play with her, as he had
+always done with the male comrade of his own size. But the _joy
+of combat_ seized him, and after that his only purpose was to
+kill. My verdict was, not premeditated murder, but murder in the
+second degree.
+
+In the order of carnivorous animals, I think the worst criminals
+are found in the Marten Family (_Mustelidae_); and if there
+is a more murderous villain than the mink, I have yet to find him
+out. The mink is a midnight assassin, who loves slaughter for the
+joy of murder. The wolverine, the marten, mink and weasel are all
+courageous, savage and merciless. To the wolverine Western
+trappers accord the evil distinction of being a veritable imp of
+darkness on four legs. To them he is the arch-fiend, beyond which
+animal cunning and depravity cannot go. Excepting the profane
+history of the pickings and stealings of this "mountain devil" as
+recorded by suffering trappers, I know little of it; but if its
+instincts are not supremely murderous, its reputation is no index
+of its character.
+
+The mink, however, is a creature that we know and fear. Along the
+rocky shores of the Bronx River, even in the Zoological Park, it
+perversely persisted long after our park-building began. In spite
+of traps, guns, and poison, and the killing of from three to five
+annually in our Park, _Putorius vison_ would not give up.
+With us, the only creatures that practiced wholesale and
+unnecessary murder were minks and dogs. The former killed our
+birds, and during one awful period when a certain fence was being
+rebuilt, the latter destroyed several deer. A mink once visited an
+open-air yard containing twenty-two pinioned laughing gulls, and
+during that _noche triste_ killed all of those ill-fated
+birds. It did not devour even one, and it sucked the blood of only
+two or three.
+
+On another tragic occasion a mink slaughtered an entire flock of
+fifteen gulls; but its joy of killing was short-lived, for it was
+quickly caught and clubbed to death. A miserable little weasel
+killed three fine brant geese, purely for the love of murder; and
+then he departed this life by the powder-and-lead route.
+
+All the year round captive buffalo bulls are given to fighting,
+and for one bull to injure or kill another is an occurrence all
+too common. Even in the great twenty-seven thousand acre reserve
+of the Corbin Blue Mountain Forest Association, fatal fights
+sometimes occur. It was left to a large bull named Black Beauty,
+in our Zoological Park herd, to reveal the disagreeable fact that
+under certain circumstances a buffalo may become a cunning and
+deliberate assassin.
+
+In the spring of 1904, a new buffalo bull, named Apache, was added
+to the portion of our herd which up to that time had been
+dominated by Black Beauty. We expected the usual head-to-head
+battle for supremacy, succeeded by a period of peace and quiet. It
+is the law of the herd that after every contest for supremacy the
+vanquished bull shall accept the situation philosophically, and
+thereafter keep his place.
+
+At the end of a half-hour of fierce struggle, head-to-head, Black
+Beauty was overpowered by Apache, and fled from him into the open
+range. To emphasize his victory, Apache followed him around and
+around at a quiet walk, for several hours; but the beaten bull
+always kept a factor of safety of about two hundred feet between
+himself and the master of the herd. Convinced that Black Beauty
+would no longer dispute his supremacy, Apache at last pronounced
+for peace and thought no more about the late unpleasantness. His
+rival seemed to accept the situation, and rejoined the herd on the
+subdued status of an ex-president.
+
+For several days nothing occurred; but all the while Black Beauty
+was biding his time and watching for an opportunity. At last it
+came. As Apache lay dozing and ruminating on a sunny hill-side,
+his beaten rival quietly drifted around his resting-place,
+stealthily secured a good position, and, without a second's
+warning plunged his sharp horns deep into the lungs of the
+reclining bull. With the mad energy of pent-up and superheated
+fury, the assassin delivered stab after stab into the unprotected
+side of the helpless victim, and before Apache could gain his feet
+he had been gored many times. He lived only a few minutes.
+
+It was foul murder, fully premeditated; and had Black Beauty been
+my personal property, he would have been executed for the crime,
+without any objections, or motions, or appeals, or far-fetched
+certificates of unreasonable doubt.
+
+During the past twenty years a number of persons have been
+treacherously murdered by animals they had fed and protected. One
+of the most deplorable of these tragedies occurred late in 1906,
+near Montclair, New Jersey. Mr. Herbert Bradley was the victim.
+While walking through his deer park, he was wantonly attacked by a
+white-tailed buck and murdered on the spot. At Helena, Montana, a
+strong man armed with a pitchfork was killed by a bull elk. There
+have been several other fatalities from elk.
+
+The greater number of such crimes as the above have been committed
+by members of the Deer Family (deer, elk, moose and caribou). The
+hollow-horned ruminants seem to be different. I believe that
+toward their keepers the bison, buffaloes and wild cattle
+entertain a certain measure of respect that in members of the Deer
+Family often is totally absent. But there are exceptions; and a
+very sad and notable case was the murder of Richard W. Rock, of
+Henry's Lake, Idaho, in 1903.
+
+Dick Rock was a stalwart ranchman in the prime of life, who
+possessed a great fondness for big-game animals. He lived not far
+from the western boundry of the Yellowstone Park. He liked to rope
+elk and moose in winter, and haul them on sleds to his ranch; to
+catch mountain goats or mule deer for exhibition; and to breed
+buffaloes. His finest bull buffalo, named Indian, was one of his
+favorites, and was broken _to ride!_ Scores of times Rock
+rode him around the corral, barebacked and without bridle or
+halter. Rock felt that he could confidently trust the animal, and
+he never dreamed of guarding himself against a possible evil day.
+
+But one day the blood lust seized the buffalo, and he decided to
+assassinate his best friend. The next time Dick Rock entered the
+corral, closing the gate and fastening it securely,--thus shutting
+himself in,--the big bull attacked him so suddenly and fiercely
+that there was not a moment for either escape or rescue. We can
+easily estimate the suddenness of the attack by the fact that
+alert and active Dick Rock had not time even to climb upon the
+fence of the corral, whereby his life would have been saved. With
+a mighty upward thrust, the treacherous bull drove one of his
+horns deeply into his master's body, and impaled him so completely
+and so securely that the man hung there and died there! As a
+crowning horror, the bull was unable to dislodge his victim, and
+the body of the ranchman was carried about the corral on the horns
+of his assassin until the horrified wife went a mile and a half
+and summoned a neighbor, who brought a rifle and executed the
+murderer on the spot.
+
+Such sudden onslaughts as this make it unsafe to trust implicitly,
+and without recourse, to the good temper of any animal having
+dangerous horns.
+
+If bird-lovers knew the prevalence of the murder instinct among
+the feathered folk, no doubt they would be greatly shocked. Many
+an innocent-looking bird is really a natural villain without
+opportunity to indulge in crime. It is in captivity that the
+wickedness inherent in wild creatures comes to the surface and
+becomes visible. In the open, the weak ones manage to avoid
+danger, and to escape when threatened; but, with twenty birds in
+one large cage, escape is not always possible. A "happy-family" of
+a dozen or twenty different species often harbors a criminal in
+its midst; and when the criminal cunningly waits until all
+possibilities of rescue are eliminated, an assassination is the
+result.
+
+[Illustration with caption: RICHARD W. ROCK AND HIS
+BUFFALO MURDERER This bison treacherously killed the man soon
+after this picture was made]
+
+[Illustration with caption: "BLACK BEAUTY" MURDERING "APACHE"]
+Here is a partial list of the crimes in our bird collection during
+one year:
+
+A green jay killed a blue jay. A jay-thrush and several smaller
+birds were killed by laughing thrushes,--which simply love to do
+murder! A nightingale was killed by a catbird and two mocking-
+birds. Two snake-birds killed a third one--all of them thoroughly
+depraved villains. Three gulls murdered another; a brown pelican
+was killed by trumpeter-swans; and a Canada goose was killed by a
+gull. All these victims were birds in good health.
+
+It is deplorable, but nevertheless true, that in large mixed
+companies of birds, say where forty or fifty live together, it is
+a common thing for a sick bird to be set upon and killed, unless
+rescued by the keepers. In crimes of this class birds often murder
+their own kind, but they are quite as ready to kill members of
+other species. In 1902 a sick brant goose was killed by its mates;
+and so were a red-tailed hawk, two saras cranes, two black
+vultures, a road-runner, and a great horned owl. An aged and
+sickly wood ibis was killed by a whooping crane; and a night heron
+killed its mate.
+
+Strange as it may seem, among reptiles there is far less of real
+first-degree murder than among mammals and birds. Twenty
+rattlesnakes may be crowded together in one cage, without a family
+jar. Even among cobras, perhaps the most irritable and pugnacious
+of all serpents, I think one snake never wantonly murders another,
+although about once in twenty years one will try to swallow
+another. The big pythons and anacondas never fight, nor try to
+commit murder. And yet, a twenty-foot regal python with a bad
+heart--like Nansen's polar bear--could easily constrict and kill
+any available snake of smaller size.
+
+At this moment I do not recall one instance of wanton murder among
+serpents. It is well known that some snakes devour other snakes;
+but that is not crime. The record of the crocodilians is not so
+clear. It is a common thing for the large alligators in our
+Reptile House to battle for supremacy and in these contests
+several fatalities have occurred. Some of these occurrences are
+not of the criminal sort; but when a twelve-foot alligator attacks
+and kills a six-foot individual, entirely out of his class and far
+too small to fight with him, it is murder. An alligator will seize
+the leg of a rival and by violently whirling around on his axis,
+like a revolving shaft, twist the leg completely off.
+
+Among sea creatures, the clearly defined criminal instinct, as
+exhibited aside from the never-ending struggle for existence and
+the quest of food, is rarely observed, possibly because
+opportunities are so few. The sanguinary exploits of the grampus,
+or whale-killer, among whales small enough to be killed and eaten,
+are the onslaughts of a marine glutton in quest of food.
+
+Among the fishes there is one murderer whose evil reputation is
+well deserved. The common swordfish of the Atlantic, forty miles
+or so off Block Island or Montauk Point, is not only one of the
+most fearless of all fishes, but it also is the most dangerous.
+His fierce attacks upon the boats of men who have harpooned him
+and seek to kill him are well known, and his unparalleled courage
+fairly challenges our wonder and admiration. But, unfortunately,
+the record of the swordfish is stained with crime. When the spirit
+of murder prompts him to commit a crime in sheer wantonness, he
+will attack a whale, stab the unfortunate monster again and again,
+and pursue it until it is dead. This is prompted solely by
+brutality and murder lust, for the swordfish feeds upon fish, and
+never attempts to eat any portion of a whale. It can easily be
+proved that wild animals in a normal state of nature are by no
+means as much given to murder, either of their own kind or other
+kinds, as are many races of men. The infrequency of animal
+murders cannot be due wholly to the many possibilities for the
+intended victim to escape, nor to difficulty in killing. In every
+wild species murders are abundantly possible; but it is wholly
+against the laws of nature for free wild beasts to kill one
+another in wantonness. It is left to the savage races of men to
+commit murders without cause, and to destroy one another by fire.
+The family crimes and cruelties of people both civilized and
+savage completely eclipse in blackness and in number the doings of
+even the worst wild beasts. In wild animals and in men, crime is
+an index to character. The finest species of animals and the
+noblest races of men are alike distinguished by their abhorrence
+of the abuse of the helpless and the shedding of innocent blood.
+The lion, the elephant, the wild horse, the grizzly bear, the
+orang-utan, the eagle and the whooping crane are singularly free
+from the criminal instinct. On the other hand, even today Africa
+contains tribes whose members are actually fond of practicing
+cruelty and murder. In the Dark Continent there has lived many a
+"king" beside whom a hungry lion or a grizzly bear is a noble
+citizen.
+
+
+
+
+XXV
+
+FIGHTING WITH WILD ANIMALS
+
+
+The study of the intelligence and temperaments of wild animals is
+by no means a pursuit of academic interest only. Men now are
+mixing up with dangerous wild beasts far more extensively than
+ever before, and many times a life or death issue hangs upon the
+man's understanding of the animal mind. I could cite a long and
+gruesome list of trainers, keepers and park owners who have been
+killed by the animals they did not correctly understand.
+
+Not long ago, it was a park owner who was killed by a dangerous
+deer. Next it was a bull elk who killed the keeper who undertook
+to show that the animal was afraid of him. In Idaho we saw a
+death-penalty mistake with a bull buffalo. Recently, in Spain, an
+American ape trainer was killed by his big male chimpanzee.
+Recently in Switzerland a snake-charmer was strangled and killed
+on the stage by her python.
+
+Men who keep or who handle dangerous animals owe it to themselves,
+their heirs and their assigns to _know the animal mind and
+temperament, and to keep on the safe side._
+
+In view of the tragedies and near-tragedies that animal trainers
+and keepers have been through during the past twenty years, I am
+desirous of so vividly exhibiting the wild animal mind and temper
+that at least a few of the mistakes of the past may be avoided in
+the future. Fortunately I am able to state that thus far no one
+ever has been killed by an animal in the Zoological Park; but
+several of our men have been severely hurt. The writer hereof
+carries two useless fingers on his best hand as a reminder of a
+fracas with a savage bear. How Dangerous Animals Attack Men. The
+following may be listed as the wild animals most dangerous to man:
+
+1. In the open: Alaskan brown bears, the grizzly bears, lion,
+tiger, elephant, leopard, wolf, African buffalo, Indian gaur and
+buffalo, and gorilla.
+
+All these species are dangerous to the man who meddles with them,
+either to kill or to capture them. If they are not molested by
+man, there is very little to fear from any of them save the man-
+eating lions, and tigers, the northern wolf packs, Alaskan brown
+bears and rogue elephants.
+
+2. In captivity, or in process of capture: Under this head a
+special list may be thus composed:
+
+Male elk and deer in the rutting season; male elephants over
+fifteen years of age; all bears over one year of age, and
+especially "pet" bears; all gorillas, chimpanzees and orangs over
+seven years of age (puberty); all adult male baboons, gibbons,
+rhesus monkeys, callithrix or green monkeys, Japanese red-faced
+monkeys and large macaques; many adult bison bulls and cows of
+individually bad temper; also gaur, Old World buffalo, anoa bulls,
+many individually bad African antelopes, gnus and hartebeests; all
+lions, tigers, jaguars, leopards, wolves, hyenas, and all male
+zebras and wild asses over four years of age.
+
+How they attack. The _lion, tiger and bear_ launches at a
+man's head or face a lightning-quick and powerful fore-paw blow
+that in one stroke tears the skin and flesh in long gashes, and
+knocks down the victim with stunning force. Before recovery is
+possible the assailant rushes to the prostrate man and begins to
+bite or to tear him. Instinctively the fallen man covers his face
+with his arms, and with the lion, tiger and leopard the arms come
+in for fearful punishment. It is the way of carnivorous beasts to
+attack each other head to head and mouth to mouth, and this same
+instinct leads these animals to focus their initial attacks upon
+the heads and faces of their human quarry.
+
+After a man-eating lion or tiger has reduced the human victim to a
+state of non-resistance, the great beast seizes the man by a bite
+embracing the chest, and with the feet dragging upon the ground
+rushes off to a place of safety to devour him at leisure. Dr.
+David Livingston was seized alive by a lion, and carried I forget
+how many yards without a stop. His left humerus was broken in the
+onset, but the lion abandoned him without doing him any further
+serious harm.
+
+Once I could not believe that a lion or a tiger could pick up a
+man in his mouth and rapidly carry him off, as a fox gets away
+with a chicken; but when I shot a male tiger weighing 495 pounds,
+standing 37 inches high and measuring 35 inches around his jaws, I
+was forever convinced. In the Malay Peninsula Captain Syers told
+me that a tiger leaped a stockade seven feet high, seized a
+Chinese woodcutter, leaped out with him, and carried him away.
+
+In a scrimmage with a lion or tiger in the open, the fight is not
+prolonged. It is a case of kill or be killed quickly. The time of
+times for steady nerves and perfectly accurate shooting is when a
+lion, tiger or bear charges the hunter at full speed, beginning
+sufficiently far away to give the hunter a sporting chance. _The
+hunter can not afford to be "scared!"_ It is liable to cost too
+much!
+
+The Alaskan brown bear has a peculiar habit. Occasionally he kills
+the hunter he has struck down, but very often he contents himself
+with biting his victim on his fleshy parts, _literally from head
+to foot._ More than one unfortunate amateur hunter has been
+fearfully bitten without having a bone broken, and without having
+an important artery or vein severed. Such unfortunates lie upon
+their faces, with their arms protecting their heads as best they
+can, and take the awful punishment until the bear tires of it and
+goes away. Then they _crawl,_ on hands and knees, to come
+within reach of discovery and help. In the annals of Alaska's
+frontier life there are some heart-rending records of cases such
+as I have described, coupled with some marvellous recoveries.
+Strange to say, bear bites or scratches _almost never produce
+blood poisoning!_ This seems very strange, for the bites of
+lions, tigers and leopards very frequently end in blood poisoning,
+incurable fever and death. This probably is due to the clean mouth
+of the omnivorous bear and the infected mouth of the large cats,
+from putrid meat between their teeth.
+
+_The wolf_ is particularly dangerous to his antagonists, man
+or beast, from the cutting power of his fearful snap. His molar
+teeth shear through flesh and small bones like the gash of a
+butcher's cleaver; and his wide gape and lightning-quick
+movements render him a very dangerous antagonist. The bite of a
+wolf is the most dangerous to man of any animal bite to which
+keepers are liable, and it is the law of zoological gardens and
+parks that every wolf bite means a quick application of anti-
+rabies treatment at a Pasteur institute. Personally, I would be no
+more scared by a wolf-bite than by a feline bite, but the verdict
+of the jury is,--"it is best to be on the safe side."
+
+_Buck elk and deer_ very, very rarely attack men in the
+wilds, unless they have been wounded and brought to bay; and then
+very naturally they fight furiously. It is the attacks of captive
+or park-bred animals that are most to be feared.
+
+All the deer that I know attack in the same way,--first by a
+_slow_ push forward, in order to come to close quarters
+_without getting hurt,_ and then follows the relentless push,
+push, push to get up steam for the final raging and death-dealing
+drive. Even in fighting each other, buck elk and deer do not come
+together with a long run and a grand crash. Each potential fighter
+_fears for his own eyes,_ and conserves them by a cautious
+and deliberate engaging process. This is referred to in another
+chapter.
+
+Fortunately for poor humanity, the same slow and cautious tactics
+are adopted when a buck deer or wapiti decides to attack a man.
+This gives the man in the case a chance to put up his defense.
+
+The attacking deer lowers his head, throws his antlers far to the
+front, and pushes for the body of the man. The instant a tine
+touches the soft breast or abdomen, he lunges forward to drive it
+in. But thanks to that life-saving slow start, the man is
+mercifully afforded a few seconds of time in which to save
+himself, or at least delay the punishment.
+
+No man ever should enter the enclosure of a "bad" deer, or any
+buck deer in the rut, without a stout and tough club or pitchfork
+for defense. Of the two weapons, the former is the best.
+
+In the first place, keep away from all bad deer, especially
+between October and January first. If you are beset, follow these
+instructions, as you value your life:
+
+If unarmed, seize the deer by the antlers before he touches your
+vitals, hold on for all you are worth, and _shout for help. Keep
+your feet,_ just as long as you possibly can. Never mind being
+threshed about, so long as you keep your feet and keep the tines
+out of your vitals. Your three hopes are (1) that help will come,
+(2) or that you can come within reach of a club or some shelter,
+or (3) that the animal will in some manner decide to desist,--a
+most forlorn hope.
+
+With a good club, or even a stout walking-stick, you have a
+fighting chance. As the animal lowers his head and comes close up
+to impale you on his spears of bone, hit him a smashing blow
+_across the side of his head, or his nose._ In a desperate
+situation, _aim at the eye,_ and lay on the blows. If your
+life is in danger from a buck elk or a large deer, do not hesitate
+about putting out an eye for him. What are a thousand deer eyes
+compared with a twelve inch horn thrust through your stomach? My
+standing instructions to our keepers of dangerous animals are:
+"Save your own life, at all hazards. Don't let a dangerous animal
+kill you. Kill any animal rather than let it kill you!"
+
+It is useless to strike a charging deer on the top of its head, or
+on its antlers. Give a sweeping _side_ blow for the
+unprotected cheek and jaw, or the tender nose. There is nothing
+that a club can do that is so disconcerting as the eye and nose
+attack, for a badly injured eye always shuts both eyes,
+automatically. Once when alone in the corral of the axis deer
+herd, I was treacherously and wantonly attacked by a full-grown
+buck. I had violated my own rules about going in armed with a
+stick, and it was lucky for me that the axis deer was not as large
+as the barasingha or the mule deer. As the buck lowered his head,
+threw his long, sharp beams straight forward, and pushed for my
+vitals, I seized him by both antlers, to make my defense. At that
+he drove forward and nearly upset me. Quickly I let go the right
+antler and shifted myself to the animal's left side, where by
+means of the left antler I pulled the struggling buck's head
+around to my side. Then he began to plunge. Throwing the weight of
+my chest upon his shoulders I reached over him and with my free
+hand finally grasped his right foreleg below the knee, and pulled
+it up clear of the ground. With that I had him.
+
+He tried to struggle free, but I was strong in those days, and
+angry besides, and he was helpless. Up beside the deer barn, most
+providentially for the finish, I saw a very beautiful barrel
+stave. It was the very thing! I worked him over to it, caught it
+up, and then still holding him by his left antler I laid that
+stave along his side until he was well punished, and glad when
+released to rush from that neighborhood.
+
+Female "pet" deer, and female elk, can and do put up dangerous
+fights with their front hoofs, standing high up on their hind legs
+and striking fast and furiously. A gentleman of my acquaintance
+was thus attacked, most unexpectedly, by his pet white-tailed deer
+doe. She struck about a dozen times for his breast, and his vest
+and coat were slit open in several places. I once saw two cow elk
+engage with their front feet in a hot fight, but they did no real
+damage.
+
+Of course an angry _bison, buffalo or gaur_ lowers its head
+in attacking a man, and seeks to gore and toss him at the same
+moment. The American bison will start at a distance of ten or
+twenty yards, and with half lowered head jump forward, grunting
+"Uh! Uh! Uh!" as he comes. When close up he pauses for a second
+and poises his head for the toss. That is the man's one chance. At
+that instant he must strike the animal on the side of his head,
+and strike hard; and the region of the eye is the spot at which to
+aim.
+
+Once we were greatly frightened by the determined charge of a
+savage cow bison upon Keeper McEnroe, who was armed with a short-
+handled 4-tine pitchfork. As she grunted and came for him we could
+not refrain from shouting a terrorized warning, "Look out,
+McEnroe! Look out!"
+
+He looked out. He stood perfectly still, and calmly awaited the
+onset. The cow rushed close up, and dropped her chin low down for
+the goring toss. The keeper was ready for her. Swinging his
+pitchfork he delivered a smashing blow upon the left side of the
+cow's head, which disconcerted and checked her. Before she could
+recover herself he smashed her again, and again. Then she turned
+tail and ran, followed by the shouts of the multitude.
+
+_Adult male elephants_ are among the most dangerous of all
+wild animals to keep in captivity. They _will_ grow bad-
+tempered with adult age, keepers _will_ become careless of
+danger that is present every day, and a bad elephant often is a
+cunning and deceitful devil. The strength of an elephant is so
+great, the toughness of its hide is so pronounced, and the danger
+of a sudden attack is so permanent that life in a park with a
+"bad" elephant is one continuous nightmare.
+
+Naturally we have been ambitious to prevent all manner of fatal
+wild beast attacks upon our keepers. We try our best to provide
+for their safety, and having done that to the limit we say: "Now
+it is up to you to preserve your own life. If you can not save
+yourself from your bad animals, no other person can do it for
+you!"
+
+Either positively, comparatively or superlatively, a bad elephant
+is a cunning, treacherous and dangerous animal. We have seen
+several elephants in various stages of cussedness. Alice, the
+adult Indian female, is mentally a freak, but she is not vicious
+save under one peculiar combination of circumstances. Take her
+outside her yard, and instantly she becomes a storm centre. Gunda
+was bad to begin with, worse in continuation and murderously
+worst at his finish. At present Kartoum is dangerous only to
+inanimate fences and doors.
+
+A wild elephant attacks a hunter by charging furiously and
+persistently, sometimes making a real man-chase, seizing the man
+or knocking him down, and then impaling him upon his tusks as he
+lies. More than one hunter has been knocked down, and escaped the
+impalement thrust only through the mercy of heaven that caused the
+tusks to miss him and expend their murderous fury in the ample
+earth.
+
+On rare occasions an enraged wild elephant deliberately tramples a
+man to death; and there is one instance on record wherein the
+elephant held his dead native victim firmly to the ground while he
+tore him asunder "and actually jerked his arms and legs to some
+distance."
+
+In captivity a mean elephant kills a keeper, or other person, by
+suddenly knocking him down, and then either trampling upon him or
+impaling him.
+
+Gunda, our big male Indian tusker, was the worst elephant with
+which I ever came in close touch, and we hope never to see his
+like again. When about ten years old he came to us direct from
+Assam, and when I saw his big and bulging eyes, and the slits torn
+in his ears, I recognized him as a bad-tempered animal. I kept my
+opinions to myself. Two weeks later when we started Gunda's Hindu
+keeper back toward his native land, I sent for Keepers Gleason and
+Forester to give them a choice lot of instruction in elephant
+management. They heard me through attentively, and then Forester
+said very solemnly:
+
+"Director, I think that is a bad elephant; and I'm afraid of him!"
+
+Keeper Gleason willingly took him over, on condition that he
+should have sole charge of him, and as long as Gleason remained in
+our service he managed the elephant successfully. Elsewhere I
+have spoken at length of Gunda's mind and manners. He went
+steadily from bad to worse; but we never once really punished him.
+The time was when there was only one man in the world whom he
+feared, and would obey, and that was his keeper, Walter Thuman. I
+have seen that great dangerous beast cower and quake with fear,
+and back off into a corner, when Thuman's powerful voice yelled at
+him, and admonished him to behave himself. But all that ended on
+the day that he "got" Thuman.
+
+On that fateful afternoon, with no visitors present, Thuman opened
+the outside door, took Gunda by the left ear, and with his steel-
+shod elephant hook in his left hand started to lead the huge
+animal out into his yard. Just inside the doorway Gunda thought he
+saw his chance, and he took it.
+
+With a fierce sidewise thrust of his head he struck his keeper
+squarely on the shoulder and sent him plunging to the floor in the
+stall corner nearest him. Then, instantly he wheeled about and
+started to follow up his attack. In the fall Thuman's hook flew
+from his hand.
+
+At first Gunda tried to step on him, but he lay so close into the
+corner that the elephant could not plant his feet so that they
+would do execution. Then he tried to kneel upon the keeper, with
+the same result.
+
+Thuman struggled more closely into the corner, and tried hard to
+pull himself into the refuse box, through its low door; but with
+his trunk Gunda caught him by a leg and dragged him back. Then he
+made a fierce downward thrust with his tusks, which were nearly
+four feet long, to transfix his intended victim.
+
+His left tusk struck the steel-clad wall and shattered into
+fragments, half way up. The resounding crash of that breaking tusk
+was what saved Thuman's life.
+
+Gunda thrust again and again with his sound tusk, with the
+terrified and despairing keeper trying to cling to the broken tusk
+and save himself. At last the point of the sound tusk drove full
+and fair through the flat of Thuman's left thigh, as he lay, and
+stopped against the concrete floor.
+
+Experienced animal men always are listening for sounds of trouble.
+
+In the cage of Alice, three cages and a vestibule distant, Keeper
+Dick Richards was busily working, when he heard the peculiar crash
+of that shattered tusk. "What's all that!" said he; and "That's
+some trouble," was his own answer.
+
+Grabbing his pitchfork he shot out of that cage, ran down the
+keeper's passage and in about ten seconds' arrived in front of
+Gunda's cage. And there was Gunda, killing Walter Thuman.
+
+Richards darted in between the widely-separated front bars, gave a
+wild yell, and with a fierce thrust drove all the tines of his
+pitchfork into Gunda's unprotected hind-quarters, where the skin
+was thin and vulnerable.
+
+With a shrill trumpet scream of pain and rage, Gunda whirled away
+from Thuman, bolted through the door, and rushed madly into his
+yard.
+
+Keeper Thuman survived, and his recovery was presently
+accomplished. When I first called to see him he begged me not to
+kill Gunda for what he had done, or tried to do. In due course
+Thuman got well, and again took charge of Gunda; but after that
+the elephant was not afraid of him. We adopted a policy which
+prevented further accidents, but finally Gunda became a hopeless
+case of sexual insanity and lust for murder.
+
+When Gunda became most dangerous, we protected our keepers by
+chaining his feet, and keeping the men out of the reach of his
+trunk. Because of this, his fury was boundless; and as soon as it
+was apparent that he was suffering from his confinement and never
+would be any better, we quickly decided to end it all. He was
+painlessly put to death, by Mr. Carl E. Akeley, with a single .26
+calibre bullet very skilfully sent through the elephant's brain.
+
+_Chimpanzees and Orang-Utans_ attack and fight men just as
+they attack each other,--by biting the face and neck, and the
+hands, shoulders and arms. The fighting ape always reaches out,
+seizes the arm or wrist of the person to be harmed, drags it up to
+his mouth and bites savagely. As a home illustration of this
+method of attack, a chimpanzee named Chico in the Central Park
+Menagerie once bit a finger from the hand of his keeper. In April,
+1921, Mr. Ellis Joseph, the animal dealer, was very severely
+bitten on his face and neck by his own chimpanzee, so much so in
+fact that eighteen stitches were required to sew up his
+lacerations.
+
+One excellent thing about the manners of chimpanzees and orang-
+utans in captivity and on the stage is that they do not turn
+deadly dangerous all in a moment, as do bears and elephants, and
+occasionally deer. The ape who is falling from grace goes
+gradually, and gives warning signs that wise men recognize. They
+first become strong and boisterous, then they playfully resist and
+defy the keeper's restraining hand. Next in order they openly
+become angry at their keepers over trifles, and bristle up, stamp
+on the floor and savagely yell. It is then that the whip and the
+stick become not only useless but dangerous to the user, and must
+be discarded. It is then that new defensive tactics must be
+inaugurated, and the keeper must see to it that the big and
+dangerous ape gets no advantage. This means the exercise of good
+strategy, and very careful management in cage-cleaning. It calls
+for two cages for each dangerous ape.
+
+There is only one thing in this world of which our three big
+chimps are thoroughly afraid, and that is an absurd little _toy
+gun_ that cost about fifty cents, and looks it. No matter how
+bad Boma may be acting, if Keeper Palmer says in a sharp tone,
+"_Where's that gun!_" Boma hearkens and stops short, and if
+the "gun" is shown in front of his cage he flies in terror to the
+top of his second balcony, and cowers in a corner.
+
+Why are those powerful and dangerous apes afraid of that absurd
+toy? I do not know. Perhaps the answer is--instinct; but if so,
+how was it acquired? The natives of the chimp country do not have
+many firearms, and the white man's guns have been seen and heard
+by not more than one out of every thousand of that chimp
+population.
+
+Baboons Throw Stones. So far as we are aware, baboons are the only
+members of the Order Primates who ever deliberately throw
+missiles as means of offense. In 1922 there was in the New York
+Zoological Park a savage and aggressive Rhodesian baboon
+(_Choiropithecus rhodesiae,_ Haagner) which throws stones at
+people whenever he can get hold of such missiles. We have seen him
+set up against Keeper Palmer and Curator Ditmars a really vigorous
+bombardment with stones and coal that had been supplied him. His
+throw was by means of a vigorous underhand pitch, and but for the
+intervening bars he would have done very good execution.
+
+Keeper Rawlinson, of the Primate House, who was in the Boer War,
+states that on one occasion when his company was deploying along
+the steep side of a rock-covered kopje a troop of baboons above
+them rolled and threw so many stones down at the men that finally
+two machine guns were let loose on the savage beasts to disperse
+them.
+
+
+
+
+THE CURTAIN
+
+
+On one side of the heights above the River of Life stand the men
+of this little world,--the fully developed, the underdone, and
+the unbaked, in one struggling, seething mass. On the other side,
+and on a level but one step lower down, stands the vanguard of the
+long procession of "Lower" Animals, led by the chimpanzee, the
+orang and the gorilla. The natural bridge that _almost_ spans
+the chasm lacks only the keystone of the arch.
+
+Give the apes just one thing,--_speech,_--and the bridge is
+closed!
+
+Take away from a child its sight, speech and hearing, and the
+whole world is a mystery, which only the hardest toil of science
+and education ever can reveal. Give back hearing and sight,
+without speech, and even then the world is only half available.
+Give a chimpanzee articulate expression and language, and no one
+could fix a limit to his progress.
+
+Take away from a man the use of one lobe of his brain, and he is
+rendered speechless.
+
+The great Apes have travelled up the River of Life on the opposite
+side from Man, but they are only one lap behind him. Let us not
+deceive ourselves about that. Remember that truth is inexorable in
+its demands to be heard.
+
+We need not rack our poor, finite minds over the final problem of
+evolution, or the final destiny of Man and Ape. We cannot prove
+anything beyond what we see. We do not know, and we never can
+know, whether the chimpanzee has a "soul" or not; and we cannot
+_prove_ that the soul of man is immortal. If man possesses a
+soul of lofty stature, why not a soul of lowly stature for the
+chimpanzee?
+
+We do not know just _where_ "heaven" is; and we cannot know
+until we find it. But what does it all matter on earth, if we keep
+to the straight path, and rest our faith upon the Great Unseen
+Power that we call God?
+
+Said the great Poet of Nature in his ode "To a Waterfowl:"
+
+   "He who from zone to zone
+Guides through the boundless
+Sky thy certain flight, In the long way that I must tread
+    alone Will lead my steps aright."
+
+CURTAIN.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+BY WILLIAM T. HORNADAY
+
+
+
+
+THE MINDS AND MANNERS OF WILD ANIMALS
+
+CAMP FIRES ON DESERT AND LAVA
+
+CAMP FIRES IN THE CANADIAN ROCKIES
+
+TAXIDERMY AND ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTING
+
+TWO YEARS IN THE JUNGLE The Experiences of a Hunter and Naturalist
+in India, Ceylon, the Malay Peninsula and Borneo. Illustrated. 8 vo.
+
+THE AMERICAN NATURAL HISTORY A Foundation of Useful Knowledge of
+the Higher Animals of North America. Four Crown Octavo Volumes,
+Illustrated in colors and half-tones.
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+OUR VANISHING WILD LIFE Its Extermination and Preservation.
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