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LIBRARY 


CALIFORNIA 

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THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 
OF  WILD  ANIMALS 


BY  WILLIAM  T.  HORN  AD  AY 


THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS  OF  WILD  ANIMALS 
CAMP    FIRES   ON    DESERT    AND    LAVA 
CAMP    FIRES    IN    THE    CANADIAN    ROCKIES 
TAXIDERMY    AND    ZOOLOGICAL  COLLECTING 

TWO    TEARS    IN    THE   JUNGLE 

The  Experiences  of  a  Hunter  and  Naturalist  in 
India,  Ceylon,  the  Malay  Peninsula  and  Borneo. 
Illustrated.  8vo. 

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-tone*. 

THE   SAME 

Royal  8vo.    Complete  in  one  volume. 

OUB    VANISHING    WILD    LIFE 

Its  Extermination  and  Preservation. 


CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 


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;  holdfast  that  which  is  good." 


NEW  YORK 

CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 
1922 


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 


PREFACE 

During  these  days  of  ceaseless  conflict,  anxiety  and  unrest 
among  men,  when  at  times  it  begins  to  look  as  if  "the  Cau- 
casian" 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  diver- 
sion 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  intel- 
ligence 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  ques- 
tion 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  quo- 
tations. A  quoted  authority  often  can  be  disputed,  and  for 
this  reason  the  author  has  found  considerable  satisfaction  in 
relying  chiefly  upon  his  own  testimony. 


vi  PREFACE 

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  inde- 
pendent 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. 


CONTENTS 

Page 

I.    A  SURVEY  OF  THE  FIELD 

I.  THE  LAY  OF  THE  LAND 3 

II.  WILD  ANIMAL  TEMPERAMENT  &•  INDIVIDUALITY  14 

III.  THE  LANGUAGE  OF  ANIMALS 25 

IV.  THE  MOST  INTELLIGENT  ANIMALS  ....  40 

V.  THE  RIGHTS  OF  WILD  ANIMALS      ....  49 

II.    MENTAL  TRAITS  OF  WILD  ANIMALS 

VI.  THE  BRIGHTEST  MINDS  AMONG  ANIMALS  .     .  54 

VII.  KEEN  BIRDS  AND  DULL  MEN 62 

VIII.  THE  MENTAL  STATUS  OF  THE  ORANG-UTAN  .  70 

IX.  THE  MAN-LIKENESS  OF  THE   CHIMPANZEE.     .  82 

X.  THE  TRUE  MENTAL  STATUS  OF  THE  GORILLA  93 
XL          THE  MIND  OF  THE  ELEPHANT 101 

XII.  THE  MENTAL  AND  MORAL  TRAITS  OF  BEARS.  124 

XIII.  MENTAL  TRAITS  OF  A  FEW  RUMINANTS     .     .  142 

XIV.  MENTAL  TRAITS  OF  A  FEW  RODENTS  .     .     .  160 

XV.  THE  MENTAL  TRAITS  OF  BIRDS 171 

XVI.  THE  WISDOM  OF  THE  SERPENT 194 

XVII.  THE  TRAINING  OF  WILD  ANIMALS  .     .     .     .  204 


Pa* 

III.    THE  HIGHER  PASSIONS 


XVIII.  THE  MORALS  OF  WILD  ANIMALS      .     .     .     .  219 

XIX.  THE  LAWS  OF  THE  FLOCKS  AND  HERDS     .     .  225 

XX.  PLAYS  AND  PASTIMES  OF  WILD  ANIMALS  .     .  233 

XXI.  COURAGE  IN  WILD  ANIMALS 241 

IV.    THE  BASER  PASSIONS 

XXII.  FEAR  AS  A  RULING  PASSION 261 

XXIII.  FIGHTING  AMONG  WILD  ANIMALS    .     .     .     .  272 

XXIV.  WILD  ANIMAL  CRIMINALS  AND  CRIME  .     .     .  286 

XXV.  FIGHTING  WITH  WILD  ANIMALS 302 

THE  CURTAIN.  314 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

Overpowering  Curiosity  of  a  Mountain  Sheep       ....  Frontispiece 

Christmas  at  the  Primates'  House Facing  page  42 

The  Trap-Door  Spider's  Door  and  Burrow       ...             "  46 

Hanging  Nest  of  the  Baltimore  Oriole  ...."•.  64 

Great  Hanging  Nests  of  the  Crested  Cacique  ...             "  64 

"Rajah,"  the  Actor  Orang-Utan "  76 

Thumb-Print  of  an  Orang-Utan "  76 

The  Lever  That  Our  Orang-Utan  Invented Page  78 

Portrait  of  a  High-Caste  Chimpanzee         ....     Facing  page  84 

The  Gorilla  With  the  Wonderful  Mind       ....            "  98 

Tame  Elephants  Assisting  in  Tying  a  Wild  Captive  .  no 

Wild  Bears  Quickly  Recognize  Protection  ....             "  130 

Alaskan  Brown  Bear,  "Ivan,"  Begging  for  Food  .     .             "  134 

The  Mystery  of  Death "  134 

The  Steady-Nerved  and  Courageous  Mountain  Goat  152 

Fortress  of  an  Arizona  Pack-Rat Page  164 

Wild  Chipmunks  Respond  to  Man's  Protection     .     .    Facing  page  166 

An  Opossum  Feigning  Death 166 

Migration  of  the  Golden  Plover.     (Map) Page  172 

Remarkable  Village  Nests  of  the  Sociable  Weaver  Bird    Facing  page  182 

Spotted  Bower-Bird,  at  Work  on  Its  Unfinished  Bower            "  184 

ix 


x  ILLUSTRATIONS 

Hawk-Proof  Nest  of  a  Cactus  Wren facing  page  196 

A  Peace  Conference  With  an  Arizona  Rattlesnake      .  "  196 

Work  Elephant  Dragging  a  Hewn  Timber  ....  "  208 

The  Wrestling  Bear,  "Christian,"  and  His  Partner    .  "  216 

Adult  Bears  at  Play "  234 

Primitive  Penguins  on  the  Antarctic  Continent,  Una- 
fraid of  Man  266 

Richard  W.  Rock  and  His  Buffalo  Murderer   ...  "  298 

"Black  Beauty"  Murdering  "Apache"      .     .  "298 


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  plare  in  nature, 

3 


4  THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

0 

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  30,00x3 
years.  The  Cro-Magnons  of  that  far  time  possessed  real  artis- 
tic talent,  and  on  the  smooth  stone  walls  and  ceilings  of  the 
caves  of  France  they  drew  many  wonderful  pictures  of  mam- 
moths, 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  cave- 
man 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,  pub- 
lished 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  psycholo- 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  5 

gists  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  considera- 
tion, 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  cheer- 
ful 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  Dream- 
land is  mighty  easy  to  cross.  He  who  easily  yields  to  seduc- 
tive 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  sim- 
ple acts  of  animals  the  most  complex  and  far-fetched  interpre- 
tations 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 


6  THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  wis- 
dom; 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  regard- 
ing 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  inno- 
cently, 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 
marvelous  interpretation  upon  the  animal  act.  Beware  of  the 
man  who  always  sees  marvelous  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  phe- 
nomena and  hold  them  in  leash  to  be  turned  loose  precisely  when 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  7 

the  great  Observer  of  Wonders  spends  his  day  in  the  woods. 
Wise  men  always  suspect  the  man  who  sees  too  many  mar- 
velous 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  untram- 
meled  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,  sani- 
tary 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 


8  THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

can  observe  many  new  traits  of  wild  animal  character,  as  they 
are  brought  to  the  surface  by  captivity.  There  will  some  indi- 
viduals reveal  the  worst  traits  of  their  species.  Others  wHl 
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  men- 
tal 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  obser- 
vation 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  mam- 
mals, birds,  reptiles,  amphibians  and  fishes,  the  brain  pro- 
gressively 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  disor- 
dered, 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. 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  9 

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  of- 
ten 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  ob- 
serving 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  intelli- 
gence 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  sleep- 
ing 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  un- 
usual 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  mis- 


io  THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

take  to  assume  that  because  an  organism  is  small  it  neces- 
sarily 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,  sep- 
arately, 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  de- 
scending 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  reason- 
ing power  of  the  latter  is  not  a  debatable  question.  The  only 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  11 

real  question  is:  how  far  does  their  intelligence  carry  them? 
It  is  with  puzzled  surprise  that  we  have  noted  the  curious  dili- 
gence 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  pos- 
session 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  fun- 
damental passions  and  emotions  that  animate  the  human  race. 
This  fact  is  subject  to  intelligent  analysis,  discussion  and  de- 
velopment, 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  ani- 
mal 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. 


12  THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  me- 
chanical 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  mon- 
ster, 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  profes- 
sion 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 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  13 

years  of  age  all  apes  are  difficult,  or  even  impossible,  as  sub- 
jects 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  per- 
fect 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. 


n 


WILD  ANIMAL  TEMPERAMENT 
AND   INDIVIDUALITY 

rman  and  in  vertebrate  animals  generally,  temperament 
s  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  denned  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  cap- 
tivity, 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  trage- 
dies 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  ner- 
vous 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. 

14 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  15 

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,  inac- 
tivity 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,  domi- 
neering and  dangerous.  The  male  is  given  to  shouting,  yell- 
ing, 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  hun- 
dreds. 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 


1 6  THE  MINDS  ANIT  MANNERS 

and  strength  that  the  baboons  have  been  able  to  live  on  the 
ground  and  survive  and  flourish  in  lands  literally  reekiag  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  tem- 
perament 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  com- 
pleteness. 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. 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  17 

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  con- 
clusions 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,  cour- 
ageous, peaceful  and  reliable,  but  in  the  wilds  they  are  aggres- 
sive and  dangerous. 

The  grizzlies  are  nervous,  keen,  cautious,  and  seldom  wan- 
tonly 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  ag- 
gressive. 

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, 


1 8  THE  MINDS  AND   MANNERS 

but"also  of  each  animal;  and  there  are  times  when  this  neces- 
sity 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  com- 
mon 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,  confi- 
dent, 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. 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  19 

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  tem- 
perament 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  enter- 
prising, 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  am- 
bush, and  being  almost  constantly  on  the  move,  it  is  a  good 
show  animal. 

The  Strange  Combative  Temperament  of  the  Gua- 
naco.  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  desper- 
ate 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 


20  THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  con- 
tents 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  remark- 
able arctic  animal  with  which  we  are  but  slightly  acquainted: 

"In  the  summer  of  1891,  as  a  member  of  the  first  Peary  Expe- 
dition 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  Green- 
land'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  excite- 
ment 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  num- 
bering from  ten  to  fifty,  and  in  some  instances  no  doubt  larger 
numbers  may  be  found  together.  On  calm  days  they  rest  in  un- 
molested 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, 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  21 

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  excite- 
ment 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,  how- 
ever, 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  sup- 
ported on  both  sides,  giving  the  appearance  of  three  animals  swim- 
ming 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 


22  THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  neces- 
sary 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  rifle.  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.  In- 
dividual Elephants  vary  in  temperament  far  more  than  do  rhi- 
noceroses 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  ele- 
phant 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  ele- 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  23 

phants  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  legiti- 
mate 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 


24  THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  respon- 
sible 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. 


m 

THE  LANGUAGE  OF  WILD  ANIMALS 

IANGUAGE  is  the  means  by  which  men  and  animals 
A  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  lan- 
guage, 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 


26  THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  interest- 
ing facts.  Excepting  the  song-birds,  the  wild  creatures  of 
today  have  learned  through  instinct  and  accumulated  ex- 
perience 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-da/t-cut !" 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  27 

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  Callus  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  com- 
municate. 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  ex- 


28  THE  MINDS  AND   MANNERS 

cited  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'- 
o6!who'-od!who'-oo!" 

Then  comes  the  angry  and  threatening,  "  Wah',  wah',  wah- ! 
Wah'-hobl  Wah'-hobl" 

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  accom- 
panied 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  com- 
fortable 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, 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  29 

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  re- 
member 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-ho6!  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  ram- 
page 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 


30  THE  MINDS  AND   MANNERS 

as  the  report  of  a  gun.  The  commonest  expressions  are 
"Wah!"  and  "PFaA'-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 
laroatus)  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  remark- 
able 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  com- 
prising 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  knowl- 
edge that  monkeys  can  and  do  communicate  to  a  limited 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  31 

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  orang-utan  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  "WAo-oo!  Who-ool  WA0-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 


32  THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  practi- 
cally nothing  more  than  squeals,  shrieks  or  roars.  The  ba- 
boons (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  "Con- 
found 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!  Ali-hoo-oo-hoo-oo-hoo-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. 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  33 

In  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,  rhe- 
sus, green  and  many  other  of  the  monkeys  were  in  their  out- 
side 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 ,j 
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  recog- 
nized 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  lit- 
tle 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 


34  THE  MINDS  AND   MANNERS 

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-2mtK)o-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  main- 
tenance men  were  silently  shoveling.  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-wowl" 

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  shoveling  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  hang- 
ing 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 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  35 

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  assem- 
bly." 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 


36  THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

I  have  ever  heard.  It  was  a  regular  "Hello"  signal-call, 
entirely  different  from  the  "Tal-700-e"  blast  which  once  came 
from  a  feeding  herd  and  guided  us  to  it. 

But  it  is  only  on  rare  occasions  that  elephants  communi- 
cate 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  con- 
tinued 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  exer- 
cise 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  untram- 
meled,  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  perma- 
nently settled  by  "the  barnyard  naturalists"  of  New  York. 

The  Voice  of  the  American  Bison.  In  1907  the  state- 
ment of  George  Catlin,  to  the  effect  that  in  the  fall  the  bellow- 
ings  of  buffalo  bulls  on  the  plains  resembled  the  muttering  of 
distant  thunder,  was  denied  and  severely  criticized  in  a  sports- 
man'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 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  37 

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  ordi- 
nary 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  Catlin'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  sug- 
gest 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- 


38  THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  vocabu- 
lary 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 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  39 

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  fig- 
ures. 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  quo- 
tation 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  observa- 
tions, made  during  a  period  of  more  than  forty  years  of  ups 
and  downs  with  wild  animals. 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS 


ESTIMATES  OF  THE  COMPARATIVE  INTELLIGENCE  AND  ABILITY 

OF   CERTAIN   CONSPICUOUS   WILD   ANIMALS,    BASED   UPON 

KNOWN  PERFORMANCES,  OR  THE  ABSENCE  OF  THEM.* 


Perfection  in  all  =100 

ft 

Perceptive 
Faculties 

_£ 

j 

a 

i 

Efficiency  in 
Execution 

Nervous 
Energy 

1  Keenness  of 
the  Senses 

1 
*! 

&* 

Chimpanzee        

100 

100 

100 

100 

75 

100 

100 

100 

100 

50 

25 

925 
850 

Orang-Utan  

100 

100 

100 

75 

100 

75 

100 

75 

100 

Gorilla  

50 

50 

50 

50 

75 

25 

25 

50 

100 

25 

500 

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 
0 

300 

White-Tailed  Deer.  .  . 

100 

100 

100 

25 

50 

0 

0 

100 

100 

575 

Big-Horn  Sheep  

100 

100 

50 

25 

50 

0 

0 

100 

100 

0 

525 
625 

Mountain  Goat  

100 

100 

100 

25 

100 

0 

0 

100 

100 

0 
50 

Domestic  Horse  

100 

100 

100 

75 

75 

75 

75 

100 

100 

850 

Lion  

100 

100 

50 

75 

50 

75 

50 

100 

100 

25 

725 

Tiger         

100 

75 

50 

50 

50 

25 

25 

100 

100 
100 

0 

575 
725 

Grizzly  Bear  

100 

100 

100 

25 

100 

25 

50 

100 

25 

Brown  Bear  (European  ) 

100 

100 

50 

25 

50 

75 

50 

75 

100 

25 

25 
25 

650 

Gray  Wolf    . 

100 

100 

100 

25 

75 

0 

0 

100 

100 

625 

Coyote  

100 

75 

50 

25 

50 

0 

0 

75 

100 

500 

Red  Fox  

100 

100 

60 

75 

100 

0 

0 

100 

100 

25 

650 

Domestic  Dog  

50 

100 

75 

75 

75 

75 

100 

100 

100 

100 
0 
0 

850 
700 
725 

[Wolverine  

100 

100 

100 

25 

100 

0 

75 

100 

100 

Beaver 

100 

100 

100 

25 

100 

0 

100 

100 

100 

*  To  the  author,  correspondence  regarding  the  reasons  for  these  estimates 
is  impossible. 

According  to  the  author's  information  and  belief,  these  are 
"the  most  intelligent"  animals: 


42  THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  intelli- 
gence, mechanical  skill  and  reasoning  power  than  any  other 
wild  animal. 

The  Lion  is  endowed  with  keen  perceptive  faculties/reason- 
ing  ability  and  judgment  of  a  high  order,  and  its  mind  is  sur- 
prisingly 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  mechani- 
cal skill  in  constructive  works  are  marvelous  and  beyond  com- 
pare. In  his  manifold  industrial  activities,  there  is  no  other 
mammal  that  is  even  a  good  second  to  him. 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  43 

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  impos- 
sible; and  he  will  cheerfully  tunnel  under  a  stone  wall  from 
one-pond  monotony,  to  go  exploring  outside. 

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  con- 
cluded that  we  could  manage  it  by  showing  the  animals  where 
we  wished  them  to  go  to  work. 

We  set  a  1 2-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  minia- 
ture 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 : 


44  THE  MINDS  AND   MANNERS 

"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 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  45 

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  mas- 
tery 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  osten- 
sibly thrown  off  his  pedestal,  in  Germany,  by  human  jealousy 
and  egotism.  Several  industrious  German  scientists  deliber- 
ately 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  ex- 
ample, 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 


46  THE  MINDS  AND   MANNERS 

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  think- 
ing 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  descrip- 
tion 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 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  47 

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. 

"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  in- 
terior 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  cement- 
ing 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 


48  THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  vegeta- 
tion, cemented  on,  in  order  to  exactly  match  the  surrounding 
soil." 


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  sen- 
sible, 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  oe 

49 


50  THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  conspicu- 
ously 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  ves- 
sels, 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  spe- 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  51 

cies  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  mam- 
mal that  offends,  or  injures  the  property  of  any  man,  is  neces- 
sarily 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,  un- 
happy 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  comfort- 
able 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 


52  THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  mil- 
lions of  persons  who  desire  to  make  its  acquaintance. 

Art.  17.  About  ninety-five  per  cent  of  all  the  wild  mam- 
mals seen  in  captivity  were  either  born  in  captivity  or  cap- 
tured 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  per- 
formances is  not  necessarily  cruel,  and  while  training  opera- 
tions are  based  chiefly  upon  kindness  and  reward,  it  is  neces- 
sary 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 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  53 

children,  and  the  treatment  of  wives  and  husbands.  A  reason- 
able 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  educa- 
tional 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  chil- 
dren 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 

'W  ATE  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  "impos- 

54 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  55 

sible  "  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.* 

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  im- 
pregnable 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  rob- 

*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. 


56  THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

bing  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  tirain.  "  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 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  57 

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  im- 
passable 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  unclimb- 
able.  There  he  scrambled  up  the  "impossible"  rocks,  ne- 
gotiated 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  sump- 
tuously, 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. 


58  THE  MINDS  AND   MANNERS 

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 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  59 

timber  and  thick  brush.  This  is  why  it  so  successfully  resists 
the  extermination  that  has  almost  swept  the  mule  deer,  ante- 
lope, 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  sanc- 
tuaries,— 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 


60  THE  MINDS  AND   MANNERS 

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  be- 
tween 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 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  61 

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  in- 
take 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. 


vn 

KEEN  BIRDS  AND  DULL  MEN 

I  Fall  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  con- 
sisted 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 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  63 

about,  peering  far  up  into  the  faces  of  passers-by  for  sympathy, 
but  all  the  time  furtively  and  shrinkingly  watching  its  tor- 
mentor. 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 


64  THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  hi  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, 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  65 

cutting  it  down  with  a  rifle  bullet  is  a  more  serious  matter. 

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  rafna  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  Balti- 
more 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  in- 
telligence among  birds.  It  is  the  community  house  of  the 
little  sociable  weaver-bird  of  South  Africa  (Phildczrus  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  in- 
cubating 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 


66  THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

inhabitants.  It  is  curious  that  even  the  initiated  eye  is  con- 
stantly 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  wonder- 
ful 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  in- 
telligence 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  ex- 
ception, 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  ex- 
termination 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. 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  67 

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  intellectuallylare 
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, 


68  THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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. 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  69 

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." 


vm 

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.  i.  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 

70 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  71 

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  an- 
atomically, 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 


72  THE  MINDS  AND   MANNERS 

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  sus- 
pects 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 
Idrew  far  back  in  a  savage  snarl,  and  she  denounced  my  perfidy 
by  piercing  cries  of  rage  and  indignation.  She  also  did  her 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  73 

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  dexter- 
ously 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  handker- 
chief 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.  Do- 
hong  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  per- 
formances 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 


74  THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

pupil's  mental  capabilities.  Some  chimpanzees  are  too  nervous 
to  be  taught,  some  are  too  obstinate,  and  others  are  too  im- 
patient of  restraint.  Some  orang-utans  are  hopelessly  indif- 
ferent to  the  business  in  hand,  and  refuse  to  become  inter- 
ested 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  hi  his  daily  affairs. 
The  other  was  an  original  thinker  and  reasoner,  with  a  genius 
for  invention,  and  at  all  times  impatient  of  training  and  re- 
straint. 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. 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  75 

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  diffi- 
culty, 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  quick- 
ness 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  en- 
joyed the  work,  and  he  entered  into  it  so  heartily  that  in  two 
weeks  he  was  ready  to  dine  in  public,  somewhat  after  the  manv 
ner  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 


76  THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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,  lie  a  self- 
satisfied  judge  on  his  bench. 

Not  once  did  Rajah  spoil  this  exhibition,  which  was  con- 
tinued 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 


£  > 

£  -n 


It! 

a  i 


fe  ^ 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  77 

a  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. 

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  ironbrackets, 
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 


78  THE   MINDS  AND   MANNERS 

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 


THE  LEVER  THAT  OUR  ORANG-UTAN  INVENTED, 

AND  THE  WAY  HE  APPLIED  IT 
By  W.  A.  Camadeo,  in  the  "Scientific  American,"  1907 

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, 
^  by  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. 

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  com- 
bined strength  exerted  by  the  three  brackets  was  not  to  be  over- 
come by  prying  at  the  honzontal  bar  itself. 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  79 

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.* 

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  struc- 
tures he  tore  completely  to  pieces, — always  working  with  the 
utmost  good  nature  and  cheerfulness. .  Realizing  that  they 

*  In  the  winter  of  192 1  about  a  dozen  newspapers  in  the  United  States  pub- 
lished 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  suf- 
ficient intelligence  to  maintain  a  proper  state  of  bodily  uprightness,  let  alone 
the  invention  of  mechanical  principles. 


80  THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  evi- 
dence 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. 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  81 

In  the  year  1915  Dr.  Robert  M.  Yerkes,  of  Harvard  Uni- 
versity, conducted  at  Montecito,  southern  California,  in  a  com- 
fortable primate  laboratory,  six  months  of  continuous  and  dili- 
gent 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  Con- 
sul,— 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. 

82 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  83 

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  chim- 
panzees 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.1  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  indi- 
vidual with  a  degree  of  clearness  and  precision  second  only  to  the 
facial  expression  of  man  himself.  In  fact,  the  face  of  an  intelli- 
gent 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  per- 
fectly 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 


84  THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  rep- 
resented 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  cap- 
tivity it  is  very  much  in  evidence.  Two  of  its  moderate  tones 
are  almost  musical.  It  is  heard  when  the  animal  says,  coax- 
ingly,  "Who '-06 !  Who '-06!"  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'-hobl  Wah'-hubl  Hoo'-hoo!  Wah-b-b-hl 

Wah-h-h-hl"  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. 


PORTRAIT  OF  A  HIGH-CASTE  CHIMPANZEE 

"Baldy"  was  an  animal  of  fine  intelligence  and  originality  in  thought.     He  was  a  natural 
comedian 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  85 

Fortunately  for  our  purposes,  the  minds  of  the  most  intelli- 
gent 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  in- 
terested me,  because  they  go  so  far  as  measures  of  mental 
capacity.  I  wish  to  make  it  clear  that  I  take  them  very 
seriously. 

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  Apec  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.  Further- 
more, 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, 


86  THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  wonder- 
ful. He  could  use  a  hammer  in  driving  nails,  and  a  screw- 
driver 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. 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  87 

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  bis  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  in- 
clined plane  and  down  four  steps  without  falling  off,  re- 
peating 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 


88  THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  ner- 
vous 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  mechan- 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  89 

ical  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  perform- 
ances, have  tested  him  at  my  psychological  clinic  and  privately 
on  three  occasions.  I  now  believe  that  in  a  very  real  sense 
t  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.  Ho  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  move- 
ments exactly,  and  reproduced  a  fair  copy  of  the  letter. 

The  last  four  paragraphs  reproduced  above  have  been 


9o  THE  MINDS  AND   MANNERS 

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  wonder- 
ful 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 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  91 

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 


92  THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  off- 
spring 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? 


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  calcu- 
lated 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  suppres- 
sion, 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 

93 


94  THE  MINDS  AND   MANNERS 

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  unrespon- 
sive, 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  f oily. 

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 
#5  degrees,  and  a  nightly  condition  of  solitude  and  terror. 
From  that  awful  state  it  was  taken  to  live  in  Major  Penny's 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  95 

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  sur- 
roundings, he  soon  became  well.  He  attained  such  robust 
health  and  buoyant  spirits  that  in  March,  1921,  he  stood  40^ 
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  cap- 
tivity. 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 


96  THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  bath- 
room 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  rasp- 
berries 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  any- 
thing to  do  with  carpentry.  With  cocoanuts  he  was  very 
funny.  He  knew  that  they  had  to  be  broken,  and  he  would 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  97 

try  to  break  them  onfthe  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  ham- 
mer 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 chUd. 

Caution.     "He  was  very  cautious.    He  would  never  run  }\J 
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. 


98  THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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.* 

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 

*In  the  summer  of  1920  a  globe-trotter  just  arrived  from  England  excitedly  reported  to  me: 
"While  driving  along  a  street  in  London  /  saw  a  live  gorilla  in  the  upper  window  of  an  apart- 
ment. 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. 


THE  GORILLA  WITH  THE  WONDERFUL  MINI 
Owned  by  Major  Rupert  Penny,  educated  by  Miss  Alyse  Cunningham,  London,  1918-1921 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  99 

out  of  a  wastepaper  basket  and  strew  the  contents  all  over  the 
room,  after  which,  when  told  to  do  so  he  would  pick  up  every- 
thing 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. 

Two  Cases  of  Original  Thought,  (i)  "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 
..  om,  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  correct- 
ness 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 


ioo          THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  wise- 
acres 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 

10? 


102          THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  ele- 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  103 

phants  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  obser- 
vations 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  indi- 
vidual, as  all  mankind  is  tempted  to  do  in  discussions  of  the 


io4          THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  capac- 
ity 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  circum- 
stances 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,  swing- 
ing 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 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  105 

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  strag- 
glers of  a  herd  of  about  thirty  wild  elephants,  which  was  scat- 
tered over  about  four  acres  of  very  open  forest  and  quietly 
feeding,  two  individuals  of  the  herd  on  the  side  nearest  us  sud- 
denly 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  motion- 
less 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  foot- 
steps. 

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 


io6          THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  plat- 
form 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  trump- 
eted 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  him- 
self 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. 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  107 

"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  inven- 
tion, 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  phi  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  mes- 
senger 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 


io8          THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

or  to  break  steel  beams,  is  amazing.  His  greatest  feat  con- 
sisted 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  per- 
fectly 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, 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  109 

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  sub- 
jugating 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  imita- 
tion military  drill  performed  by  from  twelve  to  twenty  elephants 


no          THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  ele- 
phant, 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  perfomance,  certain  individuals  were 
supplied  with  the  proper  articles  when  necessary  for  a  continua- 
tion of  the  performance,  as  follows: 

16.  Ringing  bells. 

17.  Climbing  up  a  step-ladder. 

18.  Going  lame  hi  a  fore  leg. 

19.  Going  lame  hi  a  hind  leg. 

20.  Stepping  up  on  a  tub  turned  bottom  up. 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  in 

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. 


ii2          THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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. 

1 6.  To  work  in  harness. 

Every  working  elephant  in  India  is  supposed  to  possess 
the  intelligence  necessary  to  the  performance  of  all  the  acts  enum- 
erated 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,  how- 
ever, 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. 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  113 

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  won- 
derfully 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  transi- 
tion from  a  wild  and  lawless  denizen  of  the  forest  to  the  quiet, 
plodding,  good-tempered,  and  cheerful  beast  of  draught  or 


ii4          THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  in- 
genuity of  man,  ably  seconded  by  a  few  powerful  tame  ele- 
phants. 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  mur- 
derous 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  Ten- 
nent  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,  ag- 
gressive, 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  intel- 
lect, it  should  be  as  easy  to  tame  and  educate  newly-caught  wild 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  115 

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 
cither  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  thejackoons 
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  arti- 
ficial 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  ac- 
quired. 


ii6          THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  excep- 
tion to  this  rule,  or  performed  his  tasks  with  the  prompt  obedi- 
ence 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  neivousness  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  con- 
trary, 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  ac- 
complishments 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  ele- 
phant 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  pro- 
fessional "rogue,"  the  elephant  bears  a  spotless  reputation  for 
patience,  amiability  and  obedience.  The  "rogue"  is  an  indi- 
vidual afflicted  with  either  an  incorrigible  disposition,  or  else 
is  afflicted  with  insanity,  either  temporary  or  permanent.  I 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  117 

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  re- 
venge 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  dan- 
gerous 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  ven- 
geance. In  Minneapolis  in  December  an  elephant  once  went 
on  a  rampage  through  the  freezing  of  its  ears.  I  am  quite  con- 
vinced that  an  elephant  could  by  illtreatment  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. 


ii8          THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  reason- 
ing 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  char- 
acters, 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 
i-halk-marks  on  a  blackboard.  In  ^Elian'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: 
" .  .  .1  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 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  119 

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  culpa- 
ble 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  ele- 
phant 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  per- 
sistent case  of  it  in  a  female  Indian  elephant  now  twenty-three 
years  of  age,  named  "Alice."  Her  mental  ailment  several 


120          THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  build- 
ing, 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 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  121 

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. 


122          THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  cer- 
tain 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  re- 
peated, 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. 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  123 

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  pre- 
cincts 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  dis- 
charged, and  for  two  years  he  completely  disappeared.  After 
that  lapse  of  time  he  quietly  reappeared,  looking  for  an  engage- 
ment. 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  every- 
body, once  had  the  end  of  his  trunk  nearly  cut  off  in  an  acci- 
dent. 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  ele- 
phant doctor  until  the  wound  healed;  and  afterward  that  once 
dangerous  animal  showed  dog-like  affection  for  Mr.  Ross. 


xn 

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  ac- 
complish 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  col- 
lecting, 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  over- 
hanging bars. 

124 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  125 

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,  con- 
tentment 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  won- 
derfully interesting  traits,  it  is  surprising  that  so  few  books 
have  been  written  about  them.  The  variations  in  bear  char- 
acter 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  Spo- 
kane (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  pro- 
duct 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 


126          THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  Can- 
ada a  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 !  For- 
tunately at  that  dangerous  juncture  the  lady's  husband  rushed 
up  with  a  club,  beat  the  raging  animal  as  it  deserved,  and  mas- 
tered it. 

The  owner  of  the  bear  survived  his  injuries,  and  by  a  great 
effort  the  surgeons  saved  his  scalp. 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  127 

A  "pet"  bear  in  its  second  year  may  become  the  most  dan- 
gerous of  all  wild  animals.  This  is  because  it  seems  so  affec- 
tionate 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 I"  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  hi  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. 


128          THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  inter- 
esting 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  con- 
tentment. What  we  mean  by  comfortable  captivity  very 
shortly  will  be  denned. 

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  un- 
happiness.  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  per- 
formances. 

The  Japanese  black  bear  is  nervous,  cowardly  and  hysterical; 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  129 

The  little  Malay  sun  bear  is  the  most  savage  and  unsatis- 
factory. 

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,  sus- 
picious and  intensely  "wild"  creatures;  and  therefore  the  quick- 
ness 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 


1 30          THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  at- 
tacked 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.  ("Buf- 
falo") Jones  when  he  was  superintendent  of  the  wild  animals  of 
the  Yellowstone  Park.  He  marked  down  for  punshment  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. 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  131 

I  once  said:  "C.  J.,  you  ought  to  shoot  some  of  those  griz- 
zlies, and  teach  all  the  rest  of  them  to  behave  themselves." 

"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  parti- 
tion 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  com- 
panion. 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 


132          THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  in- 
flicted, 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  irre- 
sistible. 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  exhi- 
bition 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. 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  133 

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  com- 
pletely 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.  Re- 
cently 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  "disap- 
proval," 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 


134          THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  guar- 
dianship 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  par- 
ticularly 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 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  135 

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. 

Having  no  club  to  face,  Bob  quietly  ignored  the  keeper's 
broom.  Paying  not  the  slightest  attention  to  the  three  inof- 
fensive 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  Tom- 
my 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  ac- 
count 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  hi  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 


136          THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  toy- 
ing 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  com- 
panion. 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  abso- 
lutely 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  char- 
acter. 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  Septem- 
ber (1905),  while  bears  were  very  active. 

Mr.  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 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  137 

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.  i. 

The  fresh  goat  remains  were  promptly  discovered  by  a  lusty 
young  grizzly,  which  ate  to  satiety  from  Goat  No.  i.  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  se- 
clusion 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  wastwenty-fourinchesdeep. 
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  waste- 
ful 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  dis- 
appeared. 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 


138  THE  MINDS  AND   MANNERS 

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-pre- 
servation I  will  back  that  quartet  against  all  the  other  large 
land  animals  of  North  America. 

What  Constitutes  Comfortable  Captivity.  It  is  im- 
possible 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  psy- 
chology 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  Zoo- 
logical 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 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  139 

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  pyschology.  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 


i4o          THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  deter- 
mined 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. 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  141 

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. 


xm 

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  (i)  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  hi  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  rumi- 
nants 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 

142 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  143 

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  pre- 
sently 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  in- 
surance 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." 


144          THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  thou- 
sands 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  when- 
ever 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, 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  145 

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 


146          THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  widly  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  then*  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 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  147 

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 


148  THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

sheep.  On  those  black  and  blasted  peaks  and  plains  of  lava, 
where  nature  was  working  hard  to  replant  with  desert  vegeta- 
tion 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  tune.  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 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  149 

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  /  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  hi  the  Avawatz  Moun- 
tains near  Death  Valley,  California.  Finding  a  water  hole  to 
which  mountain  sheep  occasionally  came  at  night  to  drink, 


150  THE  MINDS  AND   MANNERS 

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  Stone- 
wall." 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 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  151 

in  Ovis  nelsoni  a  reputation  for  quick  thinking,  original  reason- 
ing 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 


152          THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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 


THE  STEADY-NERVED  AND  COURAGEOUS  MOUNTAIN  GOAT 

Photographed  at  eight  feet 


He  refused  to  be  stampeded  off  his  led 
by  John 


•men  or  dog. 
Hips  (1905) 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  153 

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: 

i"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 
b  rasingha  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 
-  and  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. 


154          THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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 
equaled  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 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  155 

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  Moutain 
"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  Tyrranosaurus  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, 


156          THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

"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  nowl  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  coinci- 
dence,— 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  mem- 
ber 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 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  157 

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,  ga- 
zelles, 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  sum- 
med 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  moun- 
tains 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. 


158          THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

In  captivity,  excepting  the  keen  kongoni,  or  Coke  harte- 
beest,  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  hi  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  hi  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  hi  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, 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  159 

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  leucoptis), 
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.* 

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  under- 

*  A  few  months  later,  acting  upon  the  information  of  our  fossil  discoveries  that  we  conveyed 
to  Professor  Henry  Pairfield  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  Tyranttosaurus  rex. 

1 60 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  161 

neath,  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  hi  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,  (i)  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  ven- 
tured to  climb  up  the  thills  of  the  buggy.  (8)  After  a  full  ex- 
ploration 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. 


162          THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

(n)  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. 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  163 

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  "Ari- 
zona" 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  sug- 
gested 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  mam- 
mal 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  en- 
semble a  fortress.  On  the  spot  I  made  a  very  good  map  of 
it,  which  is  presented  on  page  164.*  The  animal  that  made  it  was 
the  White-Throated  Pack  Rat  (Neotoma  albigula).  The  for- 
tress consisted  of  several  burrow  entrances,  the  roads  leading 
to  which  were  defended  by  carefully  constructed  barriers  of 
cactus  joints  full  of  spines. 

•From  "Camp- Fires  on  Desert  and  Lava"  (Scribner's)  page  304. 


i64 


THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 


The  habitants  had  chosen  to  locate  their  fortress  between 
a  large  creosote  bush  and  a  tree-choya  cactus  (Opuntiajidgida) 
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 


Abandoned  ho!« 


FORTRESS  OF  A  PACK-RAT,  AT  TUCSON  DEFENDED  BY  THE  SPINY 
POINTS  OF  THE  TREE  CHOYA   (Opuntid 


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  hi  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. 

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 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  165 

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  im- 
possible. 

The  beautiful  little  Desert  Kangaroo  Rat  (Dipodomys 
deserti)  has  worked  out  quite  a  different  system  of  home  pro- 
tection. 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  at- 
tempting 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  con- 
fidence. 

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- 


166          THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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, — cojn- 
plaints  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  hi  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  sur- 
vival 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 


WILD  CHIPMUNKS  RESPOND  TO  MAN'S  PROTECTION 
J.  Alden  Loring  and  his  wild  pets 


AN  OPOSSUM  FEIGNING  DEATH 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  167 

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? 

When  he  is  awake,  he  lives  on  hay,  of  his  own  making! 

In  September  and  October,  and  up  to  the  arrival  of  the  en- 
veloping 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  syl- 
vaticus)  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  under- 
rate 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 


168  THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  hi 
Pennsylvania?  But  they  are  there.  They  refuse  to  be  exter- 
minated. 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  hi  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  hi  the  burrow  of  the  "dog."  The  rodent  hates 
both  these  interloping  enemies,  and  carefully  avoids  them. 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  169 

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  hi  any  chapter  devoted  to  the  mental  traits  of 
rodents,  and  I  deem  it  fitting  to  record  here  our  latest  experi- 
ence 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 


170          THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

house.  A  good,  practicable  tunnel  was  built  to  an  under- 
water 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  situa- 
tion 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.  ii.  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  pro- 
gress. 

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  be- 
hind 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  in- 
stinctive knowledge  of  the  bird  is  of  a  mental  quality  inferior 
to  that  o£  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  inexhaust- 
able.  It  is  peihaps  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 

171 


172 


THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 


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, 


MIGRATION  OF  THE 
LDEN  PLOVER 


k      From      Ktra.   Migration,      Oy  Uf. 

\W.  W.  Cooke,   U.  S.  Dept.  of 

Agriculture,  1915 

\ 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  173 

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  approx- 
imately when  they  will  return.  And  is  not  that  really  about 
all  that  we  do  know? 

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  im- 
pressed 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  repro- 
duce 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  hi  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  Novia  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.) 


174          THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  per- 
petual, 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  mys- 
tery 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  cir- 
cumstances. 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 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  175 

a  transfer  to  Wilmington,  or  Richmond,  via  his  own  Atlantic 
coast  line. 

The  wonderful  migratory  instincts  of  birds  have  been  devel- 
oped and  intensified  through  countless  generations  by  the  imper- 
ative 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.  Indi- 
vidual horses,  dogs  and  cats  have  done  wonderful  things  under 
the  propulsion  of  the  homing  instinct,  but  that  instinct  is  by 


176          THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  deduc- 
tion. 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  pro- 
tection and  human  friendship  is  the  spectacle  of  Mr.  Jack 
Miner's  wild  goose  sanctuary  at  Kingsville,  Ontario,  not  fai 
from  Detroit.  With  his  tile  works  on  one  side  and  his  home 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  177 

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  Curri- 
tuck  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* 

The  annals  of  wild  life  protection  literature  contain  many 
records  and  illustrations  of  the  remarkable  quickness  and  thor- 
oughness 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. 


•Mr.  Miner  is  writing  his  wild-goose  story  into  a  book:  and  the  story  is  worth  it! 


i78  THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  irrecon- 
cilable 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 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  179 

conduct.  Some  of  our  upland  game  birds,  particularly  the 
Franklin  grouse  and  ptarmigan  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  dis- 
play 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  tem- 
perament 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  per- 
petually 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  hope- 
lessly wild;  so  he  gave  the  bird  its  liberty. 

However,  hi  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  mani- 
festations, 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  ac- 
cepted him  as  a  friend, — until  the  killers  came  along  and  vio- 
lated 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 


A8o          THE  MINDS  AND   MANNERS 

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  phe- 
nomenal absence  of  the  most  natural  instinct  of  self-protection. 
The  pinnated  grouse,  sage  grouse,  Bob  White  quail  and  ptarmi- 
gan 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  pin- 
nated grouse,  which  in  Iowa  and  the  Dakotas  positively  is  a 
migratory  bird,  does  know  enough  to  fly  high  when  it  is  mi- 
grating, 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 


OF  WILD  ANIAMLS  181 

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  Cambers  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  run- 
ning." 

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  * 

*A  very  few  quail-killers  of  the  East  who  oppose  long  close  seasons  contend  that  quail  coveya 
"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  tha  benevolent  cooperation  of  the  "pump-gun"  and  the  automatic  shotgun. 


1 82          THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  widom  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. 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  183 

The  eider  duck  plucks  from  its  own  breast  the  softest  of 
feather  linings  for  its  nest. 

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  geographi- 
cal 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  specifica- 
tions 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  con- 
stantly 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  con- 
trived nest  does  not  appeal.  Tell  the  boys  that  it  is  all  right 


1 84          THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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 
sticking  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  sup- 
port, 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 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  185 

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  playmg-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." 

.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  ex- 
ceptions to  this  rule,  out  of  the  20,000  species  of  the  birds  of 
i  the  world,  are  few. 

Wild  Birds  that  Voluntarily  Associate  with  Man.  The 
species  that  will  do  so  are  not  numerous,  and  I  wfll  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 


1 86          THE  MINDS  AND   MANNERS 

have  accepted  man  at  his  face  value  and  endeavored  to  estab- 
lish 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.  Con- 
cerning "sound  mimicry"  and  the  efforts  of  memory  on  which 
'they  are  based,  Mr.  Lee  S.  Crandall,  Curator  of  Birds,  has  con- 
tributed 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. 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  187 

"  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'  car- 
ried 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 


1 88  THE  MINDS  AND   MANNERS 

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  off- 
spring. 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  intelli- 
gence 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  discus- 
sing 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. 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  189 

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  in- 
stead 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  tinder  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. 


1 90          THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  ac- 
cording to  the  rules.  The  sport  was  cruel,  but  it  was  politely 
exciting,  and  it  certainly  was  a  fine  exhibition  of  bird  intelli- 
gence. 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  ele- 
vated 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  com- 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  191 

pletely  revolves  on  its  axis  for  the  benefit  of  those  in  the  rear. 
"Vain  as  a  peacock"  is  by  no  means  an  unjustifiable  compar- 
ison. 

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  col- 
lection 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  conceal- 


i92          THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

ment,  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  hi  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  quarrel- 
some. 

6.  In  non-social  birds,  each  male  wfll  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  psy- 
chologists. 

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  hi  captivity,  the  baser  passions  are 
present.  This  is  equally  true  of  mammals.  In  confinement,  in 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  193 

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  par- 
rots, 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  main- 
tain 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  practi- 
cally 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.  Hun- 
dreds 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 

194 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  195 

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  trip- 
udians),  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 


1 96          THE  MINDS  AND   MANNERS 

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  photo- 
graphed, 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  afl  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 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  197 

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. 

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  to- 
gether hi  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  hand- 
some, 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 


198  THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  199 

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  recog- 
nized 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  cf 


200          THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  denned 
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  Rep- 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  201 

tiles  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.  Herpe- 
tologists  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  herpe- 
tologists  in  the  United  States  has  increased  about  tenfold.  It 
is  fairly  impossible  that  serpent  psychology  should  much 


202  THE  MINDS  AND   MANNERS 

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  perpen- 
dicular 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  re- 
treat he  once  was  safe  from  all  his  enemies, — until  the  fatal 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  203 

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  moun- 
tain sheep  manifest  concerning  the  same  kind  of  an  improve- 
ment 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 

004 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  205 

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  Moun- 
tain 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, 


2o6          THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  per- 
formance. 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  (i)  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) 


OF  WILD   ANIMALS  207 

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  ele- 
phants and  bears,  for  without  it  the  difficulties  in  the  manage- 
ment 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  quick- 
ness of  perception,  and  ability  to  adopt  a  new  idea,  the  ele- 
phants 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  spe- 
cies 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, 


2o8          THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  pro- 
duction 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  punish- 
ments. 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  im- 
practicable, 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. 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  209 

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. 

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 


210          THE  MINDS  AND   MANNERS 

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  con- 
tained 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  mastei, 
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  7 5  full-grown  polar  bears! 
Now,  polar  bears,  either  for  the  cage  or  the  stage,  are  bad 
citizens.  Instinctively  I  always  suspect  their  mental  reserva- 
tions, and  for  twenty-one  years  have  carefully  kept  our  keepers 
out  of  their  reach.  But  Mr.  William  Hagenbeck,  brother  of 


OF  WILD   ANIMALS  211 

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  lad- 
ders, 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  charactertistics 
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, 


212          THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  psychol- 
ogists 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  recog- 
nized 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 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  213 

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.  i  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  exhibi- 
tions 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 


2i4  THE   MINDS  AND   MANNERS 

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  plantigrade  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." 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  215 

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  compart- 
ment, 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  im- 
mediately. 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. 


216          THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  had  im- 
mediately 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  WRESTLING  EEAR,  "CHRISTIAN,"  AND  HIS  PARTNER 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  217 

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."  v 

Glass  declared  that  this  bear  was  more  intelligent  than  anjA 
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  j 
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  im- 
possible to  train  it. 

At  that  implied  challenge  the  trainer  perked  up  and  in- 
sisted 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.  x 

Two  months  later  Mr.  Wormwood  appeared  again.     "Yes,"  \ 
he  said,  but  not  boastfully,  "/  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  work-/ 
ing  all  right." 

A  really  great  number  of  different  kinds  of  animals  have 
been  trained  for  stage  performances,  running  the  scale  all  the 


2i  8          THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  pos- 
sible 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 
hi  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 

319 


220          THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  in- 
vented 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 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  221 

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  occur- 
rence. 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  hallucina- 
tions 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  occa- 
sionally 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  kitted  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. 


222          THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  con- 
tiguous 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  there- 
fore do  we  find  the  beasts  of  the  field  a  lap  ahead  of  the  quarrel- 
some 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  wkh  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 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  223 

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  mean- 
ness 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  pack- 
mates,  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.  Trap- 
pers 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 


224          THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

game  by  the  relay  system.  The  sheep-killing  dog  is  a  cunning 
night  assassin,  a  deceiver  of  his  master,  a  shrewd  hider  of  crim- 
inal 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  evi- 
dence, 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  excep- 
tional results.  The  crimes  of  captive  animals  are  many,  but 
the  crimes  of  free  wild  animals  are  comparatively  few.  When- 
ever 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  com- 
munity 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  ram  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  granivorous  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 

225 


226          THE   MINDS  AND   MANNERS 

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  diffi- 
cult 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.  Through- 
out 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  ex- 
terminated 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  Hock  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 


OF  WILD   ANIMALS  227 

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  im- 
becilic  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  inter- 
fered with. 

For  the  perpetuation  of  a  family,  a  clan  or  a  species,  the  pro- 
tection 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  (i)  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  houjids  have  been  known  to  refuse  to  attack  and 
kill  foxes  about  to  become  mothers. 

The  Fourth  Law.  In  union  there  is  strength;  in  separa- 
tion 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 


228  THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  bead  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  domi- 
nated 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,  youth- 
ful, folly'  is  too  expensive  to  be  tolerated.  The  older  members 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  229 

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  rumi- 
nant 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 


23o          THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  dis- 
possess 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  land- 
scape, 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 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  231 

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  I  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  manifes- 
tation 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. 


232          THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  satisfac- 
tion; 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  Sep- 
tember i,  the  deadly  still-hunters  are  out,  and  strained  watch- 
fulness 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  condi- 
tions are  changed.  The  restraints  of  fear  are  off,  and  every 

233 


234          THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  con- 
sider. 

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 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  235 

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. 

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  suc- 
cessful 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  tre- 
mendous 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  wrest- 
ling 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 


236          THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  play- 
ful 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 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  237 

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  jump- 
ing 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  when- 
ever 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, 


238  THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  descrip- 
tion is  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  hi  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 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  239 

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  oidet  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 


240          THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  con- 
scious 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  par- 
ticularly joyous  bird  takes  a  fit  of  running  with  spread  wings, 
to  and  fro,  many  times  over,  and  usually  one  bird  thus  per- 
forming inspires  another,  probably  of  his  own  kind,  to  join  in 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  241 

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  ad- 
versary 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  success- 
fully made  their  escape  from  us,  but  promptly  returned  close 
up  to  my  party  in  response  to  the  S.  0.  S.  cries  of  a  captured 
baby  gibbon,  displayed  the  sublime  courage  of  parental  affec- 
tion, 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  hi  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  en- 

242 


! 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  243 


couragement  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  cy- 
clone. 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 


244          THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  Hon.  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  con- 
struction 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-con- 
sidered efforts  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  o/  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  fortu- 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  245 

nately  it  did  not  quite  end  in  a  tragedy.  This  is  what  hap- 
pened : 

Col.  Patterson  and  his  staff  decided  to  try  to  catch  the 
boldest  of  the  lions  in  a  trap  baited  with  a  living  man.  Accord- 
ingly 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  per- 
sistent 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  in- 
stances 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 


246          THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  Yel- 
lowstone Park,  where  he  has  found  out  that  firearms  are  pro- 
hibited. 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  re- 
ceived 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  man- 
ner 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  olainly  said : 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  247 

"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  persis- 
tently 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  Col- 
lection 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  re- 
markable cases  of  rage,  resentment  and  fighting  courage  in  a 


248  THE  MINDS  AND   MANNERS 

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 : 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  249 

"Then  the  other  gates  were  raised,  giving  the  bull  an  oppor- 
tunity 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  de- 
structive 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  ex- 
pression 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 


250          THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  shed- 
ding 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. 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  251 

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,  at- 
tempted to  pass,  the  guardian  gander  would  rush  forward  with 
blazing  eyes,  open  beak,  wings  open  for  action,  and  with  dis- 
tended 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  readi- 
ness 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  lau-ghing  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 


252          THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  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  suc- 
cessfully, 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 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  253 

wolves,  the  buUs  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  batter- 
ing-ram. He  repeated  these  charges  until  I  became  fearful  of 
an  outbreak,  and  decided  to  try  to  make  him  afraid  to 
repeat  them. 


254          THE  MINDS  AND   MANNERS 

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  col- 
lared 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  dan- 
gerous 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 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  255 

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  excep- 
tions. 

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  de- 
fenseless, and  children  are  superabundant. 

As  a  corollary  to  the  above  figures,  a  comparison  of  them 
with  the  roster  of  wildt  animals  killed  and  paid  for  is  of  some 
interest.  The  dangerous  beasts  destroyed  were  as  follows: 


256         THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

Elephants,  i;  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  defense- 
less 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  con- 
cededly  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. 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  257 

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  prac- 
tically never  attacking  men  unless  first  attacked  by  them,  and 
fleeing  unless  forcibly  brought  to  bay.  He  told  me  of  a  re- 
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  dan- 
gerous than  a  lion,  or  tiger,  or  grizzly  bear,  and/tfr  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. 


258          THE   MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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,  ele- 
phants 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  loco- 
motive 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  par- 
ticular 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 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  259 

conclusions  with  a  railway  train.  In  1906,  on  the  Korat  branch 
of  \he  Siamese  State  Railway,  a  bull  elephant  attacked  a  freight 
train  running  at  full  speed.  He  charged  the  rushing  loco- 
motive, 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  ele- 
phants as  for  bad  children,  but  in  practice  the  severe  punish- 
ment of  an  elephant  with  real  benefit  to  the  animal  is  next  door 
to  an  impossibility,  and  so  we  never  attempt  it.  We  do,  how- 
ever, 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. 


a6o         THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  pos- 
sible. 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,  hi  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  hi  the  life  of  the  elk,  deer  and 
antelope  fawn,  the  first  care  of  the  mother  is  to  hide  her  off- 
spring 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 

261 


262          THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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, 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  263 

the  wolf  and  the  owl.  The  skunk  fears  the  coyote  which  joy- 
ously 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  some- 
body 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  whole- 
some fear  of  man,  and  flee  from  him  at  sight.  The  lordly  ele- 
phant 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  char- 
acter 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: 


264          THE  MINDS  AND   MANNERS 

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  ele- 
phants, 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  picture? 
can  from  them  read  many  of  the  thoughts  of  the  animals. 


OF   WILD  ANIMALS  265 

Next  to  the  plainly  expressed  desire  to  quench  their  thirst  r 
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  ferze  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 


266          THE  MINDS  AND   MANNERS 

order  him  to  "Get  up  out  of  here."  The  fear-possessed  Japa- 
nese 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 


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) 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  267 

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. 

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  pho- 
tographers 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  sick- 
ening records  of  the  wholesale  slaughter  by  savage  whalers 


268  THE   MINDS   AND   MANNERS 

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  to- 
gether 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  wilder- 
ness. 

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  cheer- 
fully 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 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  269 

things  on  the  ground  below.  In  the  great  and  beautiful  Ani- 
mallai  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  abso- 
lute safety.  Talk  about  wild  animals  not  "reasoning!"  For 
shame.  What  else  than  REASON  convinced  the  wild  moun- 
tain 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  civil- 
ized and  savage)  has  much  to  answer  for;  but  each  wild  life  sanc- 
tuary that  he  now  creates  wipes  out  one  chapter.  From  the 


270          THE  MINDS   AND   MANNERS 

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  com- 
mon. 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 
tasting  at  least  twenty  minutes  he  made  not  one  hostile  move- 
ment. 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  terri- 
fying. 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  271 

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  ani- 
mals which  do  draw  blood  of  their  own  kind  through  ill  temper 
or  jealousy,  I  have  never  encountered  any  more  given  to  inter- 
necine 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  WILD  ANIMALS  273 

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 
dc  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 
caUed  "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  hi  the  tree-tops, 
for  an  adult  orang-utan  has  never  been  known  to  descend  to 
the  earth  except  for  water. 


274          THE  MINDS  AND   MANNERS 

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  impres- 
sionable 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  lands  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  be- 
tween two  of  different  species.  This  may  seem  a  very  humi- 
liating 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 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  275 

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  alli- 
gators, 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 


276          THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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.  Of  ten  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  deduc- 
tions, 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. 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  277 

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  match- 
ed, 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  dear  the 
glittering  fangs  beneath.  Coughing,  snarling,  and  often  roar- 
ing 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  dis- 
tance apart  dropped  their  front  feet  to  the  floor,  growling 


278          THE   MINDS  AND   MANNERS 

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  then*  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  lif e  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 


OF  WILD   ANIMALS  279 

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. 

Li  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  to- 
gether, 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  cnce  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 


280  THE  MINDS  AND   MANNERS 

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  vfight  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, 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  281 

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  pecu- 
liarly liable  to  become  interlocked  so  tightly  that  it  is  well-nigh 
impossible  to  separate  them.  And  whenever  this  hap- 
pens, 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  com- 
pletely 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. 


282          THE   MINDS   AND   MANNERS 

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 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  283 

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  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 


284          THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  nervous- 
ness 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  sepa- 
rated 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  OT 
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,'  i9th  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  oppor- 
tunity for  a  thrust.  At  last,  after  a  fruitless  dive,  the  swordfish 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  285 

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  4s  not  a  manifestation  of  murder  lust, 
but  of  obedience  to  the  fundamental  law  of  evolution  that  the 
the  largest,  the  strongest  and  the  most  courageous  males  of 
every  herd  shall  do  the  breeding. 

286 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  287 

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-hearted- 
ness  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  times  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  crim- 
inal. 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  mani- 
festation of  murderous  intent  on  the  part  of  a  potential  crim- 
inal. Indeed,  with  most  cunning  wisdom,  a  wild-animal 
murderer  will  often  conceal  his  purpose  until  outside  inter- 
ference 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  confine- 
ment 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. 


288          THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

To  visitors,  a  happy  and  contented  community  of  deer,  ante- 
lopes, 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  WILD  ANIMALS  289 

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  con- 
tinued 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  mem- 
bers 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 


290          THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

the  largest  and  finest  of  the  felines,  the  lions  and  tigers,  mid- 
night 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  hi  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  sneak- 


OF   WILD  ANIMALS  291 

ing  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  re- 
turned 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  Hagen- 
beck'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 


292          THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  com- 
panion 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 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  293 

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 


294          THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  break- 
ages, 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. 


OF    WILD  ANIMALS  295 

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  merci- 
less. 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  whfch  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 
Got  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  Zoo- 
logical 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 


296          THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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, 
iiBlack  Beauty  was  overpowered  by  Apache,  and  fled  from  him 
into  the  open  range.  To  emphasize  his  victory,  Apache  fol- 
lowed 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 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  297 

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  ridel  Scores  of  times  Rock  rode  him  around  the 


298          THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  sudden- 
ness of  the  attack  by  the  fact  that  alert  and  active  Dick  Rock 
had  not  time  even  to  climb  upon  the  fence  of  the  corral,  where- 
by 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. 


RICHARD  \V.  ROCK  AND  HIS  BUFFALO  MURDERER 
This  bison  treacherously  killed  the  man  soon  after  this  picture  was  m 


"BLACK  BEAUTY" MURDERING  "APACHE' 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  299 

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 


300          THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  rep- 
utation 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 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  301 

murders  are  abundantly  possible;  but  it  is  wholly  against  the 
laws  of  nature  for  free  wild  beasts  to  kill  one  another  in  wan- 
tonness. 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 

HE  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  bean 

302 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  303 

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 


3o4          THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  con- 
tents 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 
marvellous  recoveries. 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  305 

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  move- 
ments 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 


306          THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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 
lines  out  of  your  vitals.  Your  three  hopes  are  (i)  that  help 
will  come,  (2)  or  that  you  can  come  within  reach  of  a  club  or 
some  shelter,  or  (3)  that  the  animal  will  hi  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  sit- 
uation, 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.  T^HI  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. 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  307 

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  dan- 
gerous 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 


308          THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  cun- 
ning 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 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  309 

is  not  vicious  save  under  one  peculiar  combination  of  circum- 
stances. Take  her  outside  her  yard,  and  instantly  she  becomes 
a  storm  centre.  Gunda  was  bad  to  begin  with,  worse  in  con- 
tinuation 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  recoid 
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. 


3ic          THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  311 

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 


3i2          THE  MINDS  AND  MANNERS 

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  advan- 
tage. 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; 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  313 

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  de- 
liberately throw  missiles  as  means  of  offense.  In  1922  there 
was  in  the  New  York  Zoological  Park  a  savage  and  aggressive 
Rhodesian  baboon  (Choir opithecus  rhodesice,  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  inter- 
vening bars  he  would  have  done  very  good  execution. 

Keeper  Rawlinson,  of  the  Primate  House,  who  was  in  the 
Boer  War,  stateb  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  un- 
derdone, 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 
314 


OF  WILD  ANIMALS  315 

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. 


INDEX 


"Admiral,"  Alaskan  brown  bear,  door 
manipulated  by,  133;  jealousy,  131; 
white  boots  hated  by,  133. 

^Elian,  on  elephants,  118. 

Africanus,  102. 

Alaska,  W.  T.  Hornaday  misrepre- 
sented in,  263. 

Alaskan  brown  bear,  "Admiral,"  131, 
133;  courage,  264;  "Ivan,"  131, 
132;  method  of  attack,  304;  temper- 
ament, 17,  128. 

"Alice,"  Indian  elephant,  36,  308;  in- 
vades Reptile  House,  119;  tricks, 
1 08,  207. 

Allen,  Prof.  A.  A.,  179. 

Alligator,  voice,  39. 

American  bison,  36,  142;  elk,  18,  154. 

American  black  bear,  courage,  254; 
learns  principles  of  protection,  129; 
punished  by  cinnamon  bear,  134, 
135;  story  of  "pet,"  126;  tempera- 
ment, 17,  128. 

Anhinga,  193. 

"Animal  Intelligence"  by  Romanes, 
4- 

Animals,  bright  and  dull,  207;  cour- 
age against  man,  259;  courage  in 
wild,  241,  255;  crimes  of  captive 
and  wild,  244;  fear  in  carnivorous, 
262;  fighting  among,  274,  276; 
kinds  most  dangerous  to  man,  303 ; 
laws  of  wild,  225;  morals  of  wild, 
219;  moving,  attract  enemies,  233; 
pastimes  of,  233;  play  of,  233,  241; 
rights  of  wild,  49-53;  trained,  list 
of,  217;  training,  in  Zoological 
Park,  206. 

Antelope,  courage  of  prong-horned, 
252;  fights  off  eagle,  252;  sable, 
kills  lion,  279. 


Antelopes,  fighting  between  sable, 
280;  Old  World,  157. 

Antlers,  interlocking,  221,  281;  shed- 
ding, by  deer,  250. 

"Apache,"  murdered  by  "Black 
Beauty,"  296. 

Apes,  courage,  257;  imitative  work, 
85;  playfulness  of  young,  236;  tem- 
perament, 15. 

Architecture,  bird,  182. 

Atkin,  Herbert  D.,  keeper,  188,  189. 

Attack,  by  buffalo  cow  on  keeper, 
308;  methods,  by  Alaskan  brown 
bear,  304;  bison,  buffalo  and  gaur, 
307;  buck  elk  and  deer,  305;  ele- 
phant, 308;  lion,  tiger  and  bear, 
303- 

Auklet,  nest,  182. 

Avawatz  Mountains,  mountain  sheep, 
149. 

Axis  deer,  153;  temperament,  18. 

B 
Baboon,  courage,  243,  256;  fighting 

spirit,  256;  temperament,  15,  16; 

throws  stones,  313;  voice,  29,  32. 
"Baldy,"  hectoring,  237. 
Balentidium  coli,  76. 
Baltimore  oriole,  nest,  63. 
Barasingha  deer,  temperament,  18. 
Barber,  F.  H.,  kills  Cape  buffalo,  247. 
Bartholomew's    "Equine    Paradox," 

214. 

Beaman,  Judge  D.  C.,  147. 
Bear,  black,  American,  courage,  254; 

learns  principles  of  protection,  129; 

man  killed  by,  254;  punished  by 

cinnamon  bear  "Bob,"   134,   135; 

story  of  "pet,"  126;  temperament, 

17,  128. 
Bear,  black,  Himalayan,  mystified  by 

death,  133;  trained,  comedian,  210. 


INDEX 


Bear,  black,  Japanese,  death  of  "Jap- 
pie,"  133;  temperament,  17. 

Bear,  brown,  Alaskan,  "Admiral," 
131.  133;  courage,  264;  "Ivan," 
131,  132;  method  of  attack,  304; 
temperament,  17,  128. 

Bear,  brown,  European,  attacks 
keeper,  141;  comparative  intelli- 
gence, 41;  feared  by  Kadiak  bear, 
270;  temperament,  17,  128. 

Bear,  cinnamon,  bullied  by  black 
bear,  134,  135;  "Christian,"  wrest- 
ling, 216. 

Bear,  grizzly,  cache  of  food,  136;  com- 
parative intelligence,  41;  courage, 
245;  digging  for  food,  138;  disci- 
plined by  C.  J.  Jones,  130;  learns 
principles  of  protection,  129;  tem- 
perament, 17,  128;  trap  set  for,  56; 
weight,  276. 

Bear,  Kadiak,  hysteria  of  fear,  270. 

Bear,  polar,  fears  firearms,  263;  fear 
of  man,  129;  murder  of  cage-mate, 
291;  play,  235;  prominent  traits, 
128;  "Silver  King,"  memory,  135; 
trained  by  William  Hagenbeck, 
211. 

Bear,  sloth,  255;  temperament,  17. 

Bear,  sun,  Malay,  temperament,  17, 
128. 

Bears,  accidents  through,  140;  appre- 
ciate protection,  129;  boxing,  235; 
cage  construction,  139,  234;  com- 
fortable captivity,  138;  courage, 
254,  263;  fear,  263;  fighting  tactics, 
275;  food  habits,  137;  in  captivity, 
128;  intelligence,  124;  memory,  136; 
mental  and  moral  traits,  124;  per- 
sistent playfulness,  234,  235;  play 
tricks  on  each  other,  236;  power  of 
expression,  127;  rescue  of  cub,  in 
Zoological  Park,  34;  survival,  137; 
temperament,  17;  traits  of  promi- 
nent species,  128;  voice,  33,  34; 
wrestling,  235. 

Beaver,  accepts  assistance,  169;  com- 
parative intelligence,  41,  42,  44. 

Big-Horn  sheep,  comparative  intelli- 
gence, 41,  leaping  habits,  147. 


Bill  of  Rights  of  wild  animals,  50-53. 

Birds,  appreciate  sanctuary,  176,  186; 
architecture,  182;  association  with 
man,  185;  "charmed"  by  snakes, 
199;  fear  of  man,  185;  homing  sense, 
175;  instinct  prominent,  171;  mem- 
ory and  talk,  186;  mental  traits, 
171;  migrations,  171;  murders  com- 
mitted, 299;  parasitic  nesting  hab- 
its, 1 88;  pugnacity  in  captive,  191; 
recognition  of  persons,  187;  sick 
killed  by  cage-mates,  299;  tempera- 
ment, 178,  193;  vanity  displayed, 
187;  voices,  39. 

"Birds  of  Terra  del  Fuego,"  by  Rich- 
ard Crawshay,  20. 

Bison,  142;  "Apache"  murdered  by 
"Black  Beauty,"  296;  bellowing, 
36,  282;  education  by  slaughter, 
144;  fights  in  breeding  season,  282; 
herd  security,  143;  hunting  in  1886, 
144;  in  harness,  145;  playfulness  of 
young,  239;  Richard  Rock  mur- 
dered by,  298;  slaughter  by  still- 
hunters,  143;  still-hunting,  143; 
treachery,  246,  298;  voice,  36,  282; 
wounded,  144. 

Black  bear,  (see  Bear,  black). 

"Black  Beauty,"  murders  "Apache," 
296. 

Blair,  Dr.  W.  Reid,  92. 

Boar,  wild,  courage,  253. 

"Bob,"  cinnamon  bear,  black  bear 
punished  by,  134,  135. 

Bock,  Carl,  68. 

Bolshevistic  wild  animals,  232. 

"Boma,"  chimpanzee,  222,  257;  danc- 
ing, 237;  fear  of  toy  gun,  312;  mar- 
riage with  "Suzette,"  90;  taming, 
215;  vocal  performances,  29. 

Bonavita,  Captain,  208. 

Boots,  white,  hated  by  bear,  133. 

Bower  bird,  182;  playhouse,  184. 

Boxing  by  bears,  235. 

Bradley,  Herbert,  killed  by  deer,  297. 

Brain,  animal,  8. 

Brown  bear  (see  Bear,  brown). 

"Bull-dogging,"  53. 

Bull-fighting,  53. 


INDEX 


319 


Cache  made  by  grizzly  bear,  136. 

Caciques,  nests,  64;  protected  by 
wasps,  177. 

Cages,  best  type  for  bears,  234. 

Calling  of  moose,  59. 

Camacho,  L.  A.,  article  by,  80. 

Canada  goose,  courage,  251;  protec- 
tion recognized,  176. 

Cannibalism  in  animals,  220. 

Canoe  Indians,  67. 

Cape  buffalo,  courage,  247. 

Captivity,  comfortable,  138;  effect  of, 
on  wild  animals,  231. 

Caribou,  59;  play,  241. 

"Casey,"  chimpanzee,  82. 

Cassidix,  188. 

Caste  in  orang-utans,  208. 

Cervus  nannodes,  248. 

Chameleon  starvation,  53. 

Charadrius  dominicus,  173. 

Children  and  fresh  air,  60. 

Chimpanzee,  born  in  Zoological  Park, 
90;  comparative  intelligence,  41, 
42;  courage,  257;  dancing  "Boma," 
237;  Ellis  Joseph  attacked  by,  312; 
failure  of  maternal  instinct  in 
"Suzette,"  90;  fear  of  toy  gun,  312; 
hectoring  by  comedian,  "Baldy," 
237;  kills  trainer,  302;  language, 
84;  man-likeness,  82;  marriage  of 
"Boma"  and  "Suzette,"  90;  men- 
tal variations  in,  83;  methods  of  at- 
tack, 311;  monogamy,  222;  per- 
formers, 82 ;  physiognomy,  83;  play, 
236;  "Polly,"  31,  78;  possibilities, 
for  training,  82;  "Soko,"  72;  tam- 
ing of  "Boma,"  215;  temperament, 
15;  trained  performance  by  "Pet- 
er," 86,  87;  trained  performance  of 
"Suzette,"  85;  training,  85;  voice, 
28,  84. 

"Christian,"  cinnamon  bear,  trained 
to  wrestle,  216. 

Cinnamon  bear,  bullied  by  black 
bear,  134;  "Christian,"  wrestling, 
216. 

Coati  mundi,  nervous  temperament, 
19- 


Cobra,  king,  200;  temper  and  habits, 
195- 

Cockatoos,  187. 

Comedian,  chimpanzee,  237;  Hima- 
layan black  bear,  210. 

Communal  nests  of  weavers,  65. 

Conachites  franklini,  1 80. 

Condor,  South  American,  188. 

"Congo,"  Pygmy  African  elephant, 
103;  manipulation  of  cage  doors, 
107;  refusal  to  be  weighed,  106. 

"Consul,"  chimpanzee,  82. 

Cooke,  Dr.  Wells  W.,  173. 

Courage,  of  Alaskan  brown  bear,  264; 
American  elk,  247;  animals  against 
men,  259;  apes,  257,  baboons,  243, 
256;  black  bear,  254;  Canada  goose, 
251 ;  Cape  buffalo,  247 ;  chimpanzee, 
257;  gibbon,  242;  gorilla,  257;  gray 
wolf,  255;  Grevy  zebra,  259;  grizzly 
bear,  245;  hyena,  255;  Indian  ele- 
phant, 258;  laughing  gull,  251; 
leopard,  247;  lion,  244,  269;  moose, 
250;  musk-ox,  252;  peccary,  254; 
prong-horned  antelope,  252;  quail, 
242;  sloth  bear,  255;  tiger,  269; 
wild  boar,  253. 

Coyote,  38;  comparative  intelligence 
of,  41. 

Crandall,  Lee  S.,  187,  188,  191;  on 
talking  birds,  1 86. 

Crane,  dance  of  saras,  240 ;  play  of,  in 
captivity,  240. 

Cranes,  dangerous,  192. 

Crawshay,  Richard,  20. 

Crimes,  as  an  index  to  character,  301 ; 
family,  of  men,  220;  family,  of  wild 
animals,  220,  297;  of  captive  and 
wild  animals,  224,  286;  sex,  221. 

Crocodiles,  cannibalism  in,  202 ;  Flor- 
ida, den  of,  202;  man-eating,  202; 
salt  water,  202 ;  ways,  202. 

Cruelty  to  monkey,  62. 

Cuckoo,  parasitic  habits,  188 

Cunningham,  Miss  Alyse,  93,  95. 

Curiosity  in  deer,  155;  in  sheep,  149. 

Curvature  in  brain  of  elephant,  119. 
Cuvier,  on  elephant  mind,  101. 


320 


INDEX 


,53.91. 


23;  tai 

207;  tridks  of  "AHce,"  u*; 
of   **GMdV    108; 
H7.  1^3;  ^wioe;  35; 
iimninfaHiBli,    HI;  Yericrs  oo, 
119- 


INDEX  321 


F  Fowler  ft  Wens,  oa 

_  Fo».3«;  arctic,  i*ay  of.  24;  l*.yM- 

Falconry,  190. 
FaDow  deer,  homiag  instinct,  176; 


mentof,  17- 

Family,  law  against  strife,  226.  Frakes.  Wffl,  149. 

"Fanny,"  rhhnpanzrr.  90.             Fresh  air,  avoided 

bears,  263 zabsewe of,  m penguins.  makamLoo. 

267;  absence  of.  in  tiger.  269;  as  a  "Friendly  Arctic,  Tne,"  by 

ruling  passion,  261.  262;  exceptions  son,  241. 

to  rule,  266;  in  African  anhnab,  Frogs.  39. 

264;  in 


Frost,  Ned,  attacked  by  grizrfy, 
F«ian  Indiaas  booses  67. 


bear,  263,  in  young 
of  firearms,  251;  of 
185;  promoted  by 

~of 


Garner.  Richard  L,  82;  on  < 

A.  B.,  152.  goriDa,  257*  ***  voice  of 

Fielding,  George  f.,  203.  zees  and  gorillas,  28. 

:  of ,  among  free  wild      Gibbon,  courage,  242;  voice,  29. 
274;  among  Dears,  275;      GiBon,  Langdon,  on  wahus,  20-22. 
191;  among  captive     Giraffe,  conqnuative  hrtdhgenoe,  41 
284;  among  gorflbs,  274; 
among  large  birds,  284; 
272;  am 

195;  among 
272;  between  buffalo 
bulls,  282,  296;  between  bash 
and  leopard,  279; 


152;  white,  com- 
41,  42,  59; 
151. 

fight,  173. 


282;  between  cow  eft. 

tween  sable  antelopes,  280;  between  189;  sanctuary.  176;  voice,  37. 

sable  antelope  and  Boo.  279;  be-  Gopher,  pocket,  169. 

tween  tigers.  277:  between  whale  Goriua,  84.  93;  breast  beating.  98; 

and  swordfish,   284;  by   Canada  ctxnparative  inteffigence,  41; 

251;  elephants.  283;  ganr  re-  age.  2ST.  "Di-h.-  fc-afc.  in  Zoo- 
;  tigers,  278;  imaginary,  274;  m 
hods  of  al- 

figators,  284;  not  fuH  measure  of 

courage,  242;  possfeffities  between  owned  by  Major  Fenny,  94-98. 

tiger  and  grizzly  bear,  276;  spirit  m  Grebe,  floating  nest,  183. 

baboons,  256;  with  wfld  anunab.  Grizdy  bear,  cache  of  food,  136;  co 

302; wolves, 283.  parative  innn^iaii.  41; 

Firearms,  fear  of ,  250,  251.  245;  digging  for  food,  138; 

Fishes  in  glass  globes,  53.  pBnri^  C  JJones^  130;  learns 

Fossa  beds  of  HeO  Creek,  Montana,  pennant,  17, 128; trap aetfar,  56; 

160;  La  Brea,  225.  vcvjht,  276. 


322 


INDEX 


Grouse,  Franklin,  180;  pinnated,  38, 

1 80;  ruffed,  temperament  of,  179. 
Guacharo  bird,  182. 
Guanaco,    combative    temperament, 

19- 

Guillemot,  183. 
Gull,  laughing,  courage,  251. 
"Gunda,"  Indian  elephant,  23,  117, 

309;   antipathies,   107;   attack  on 

keeper,  310;  tricks,  108. 


H 


Hagenbeck,  Carl,  292;  methods  in 
training  animals,  208,  210. 

Hagenbeck,  William,  polar  bear  group 
trained  by,  211. 

"Hans,  Clever,"  the  thinking  horse, 
44. 

Harold,  Arthur,  in  "Strand"  Maga- 
zine, 211. 

Hay-making  by  pika,  167. 

Heads  and  Horns,  National  Collec- 
tion of ,  221,  247. 

Hectoring  among  bears,  236;  among 
chimpanzees,  237. 

Hell  Creek  fossil  bed,  160. 

Herd  security  and  defense,  227. 

Heterodon  platyrhinus,  200. 

Hibernation,  fresh  air  avoided  in,  60. 

Hiding  by  young  animals,  233. 

Himalayan  black  bear,  mystified  by 
death,  133;  trained,  comedian,  210. 

Hippopotamus,  temperament,  23. 

"History  of  Birds,"  by  Pycraft,  184. 

Homing  sense  of  birds,  175. 

Hoop  snake  fable,  200. 

Hornaday,  W.  T.,  fight  of,  with  axis 
deer,  307;  language  test,  with  chim- 
panzee, 31;  misrepresented  in  Alas- 
ka, 263. 

Horse,  "Clever  Hans,"  the  thinking 
horse,  44;  comparative  intelligence, 
41,  42;  danger  of  cowardly,  260. 

Horses,  Bartholomew's  trained,  116, 
214. 

Houses,  of  beaver,  169;  of  Fuegians, 
67;  of  Jackoons,  68. 

Housewives,  effect  of  monotony  on, 
232. 


Huffman,  Laton  A.,  160,  278. 
Human  race,  morals  of,  219. 
Hummingbird,  182. 
Hyena,  38;  courage,  255. 
Hylobates  concolor,  29. 
Hysteria  of  fear  in  bear,  270. 


India,  killings  by  wild  beasts  in,  255. 

Indians,  Canoe,  67. 

Insanity,  definition,  8;  in  deer,  289; 
in  elephant,  23,  117. 

Instinct,  definition,  9;  homing,  175; 
maternal,  failure  of,  90. 

Intelligence,  definition,  9;  measure  of 
animal,  10;  of  king  cobra,  200; 
table  of  comparative,  41. 

Interlocking  of  antlers,  221. 

"Ivan,"  Alaskan  brown  bear,  at- 
tacked by  "Admiral,"  131;  beef 
bones  broken  by,  132;  begging 
scheme  of,  132. 


Jacklondon  societies,  205. 

Jackoons,  houses  of,  68. 

Jackson  Hole,  elk  in,  154. 

Jaguar,  "Lopez,"  moved  to  Primate 
House,  33;  murders  mate,  290. 

Japanese  black  bear,  death  of,  133; 
temperament,  17,  128. 

"  Jappie,"  Japanese  black  bear,  death 
of,  133,  134. 

"Joe, ".orang-utan,  86. 

"  John  Gorilla,"  93 ;  affection  for  child, 
98;  caution,  97;  education  of,  by 
Miss  Cunningham,  95-98;  fear,  97; 
food,  96;  games  and  play,  97;  im- 
pressions of  nature,  97;  loneliness, 
95;  orderliness,  98;  original  thought, 
98;  playing  to  the  gallery,  98;  pun- 
ishment and  repentance,  98;  pur- 
chase of,  by  Major  R.  Penny,  94; 
table  manners,  98;  training,  95; 
treatment,  95;  use  of  tools,  96. 

Jokes  played  by  apes  and  monkeys, 
237,  238;  by  bears,  236. 

Jones,  C.  J.,  buffaloes  harnessed  by, 


INDEX 


323 


145;  disciplines  bad  grizzly,    130; 
fighting  with  wolves,  283. 
Joseph,  Ellis  S.,  attacked  by  chim- 
panzee, 311. 


K 


Kadiak  bear,  hysteria  of  fear  in,  270. 
"Khartoum,"  African  elephant,  103, 

309;    ingenuity    in    manipulating 

doors  and  locks,  107. 
Kindness,  herd  law,  226. 
Kingfisher,  burrow,  182. 
Kirby,  Vaughn,  279,  280. 


La  Brea  fossil  beds,  225. 

Lamprotornis  caudatus,  187. 

Language,  of  animals,  25-38,  229; 
apes,  27;  bears,  33;  birds,  26,  229; 
bison,  American,  36;  chimpanzees, 
84;  domestic  chicken,  26;  elephants, 
35;  jungle  fowl,  27;  signs  in  birds, 
229. 

Langurs,  32;  temperament,  16. 

Latham,  Mrs.  C.  F.,  162. 

Law  of  the  jungle,  222. 

Laws  of  wild  animals,  225;  fear  of 
man,  230;  fighting  in  the  family, 
226;  food  and  territory,  230;  obedi- 
ence, 228 ;  oppressing  the  weak,  226; 
protection  of  motherhood,  226; 
safety  in  sanctuaries,  231;  strength 
in  union,  227. 

Leek,  Stephen  N.,  154. 

Leopard,  black,  16;  courage,  247;  fight 
with  bush  pig,  279;  snow,  16;  tem- 
perament, 1 6. 

Lepus  sylvaticus,  166. 

Lever  invented   by   orang-utan,  77. 

Lion,  38;  comparative  intelligence, 
41,  42;  courage,  244,  269;  killed  by 
sable  antelope,  279;  man-eating, 
power,  244;  playfulness  of  young, 
239;  "Sultan,"  266;  temperament, 
16. 

Logic  of  animal  family  life,  222. 

Loon,  nervousness,  178. 

"Lopez,  Senor,"  cage-mate  murdered 


by,  290;  moved  to  Primate  House, 

33- 

Loring,  J.  Alden,  bird  taming  by,  185. 
Lydekker,  Dr.  Richard,  65. 
Lynx,  temperament,  17. 

M 

Macaws,  187. 

Machetes  pugnax,  191. 

Maclaren,  Malcolm,  284. 

Magpie,  escapes,  186;  talk  of,  38. 

Man,  compared  with  wild  animals, 
286;  feared  by  large  animals,  263. 

"  Man-Eaters  of  Tsavo,  The,"  244. 

Man  "scent"  in  animals,  268. 

"May  Queen,"  in  battle  with  "The 
Dowager,"  282. 

McEnroe,  Bernard,  keeper,  attacked 
by  cow  buffalo,  308. 

McGuire,  J.  A.,  advocates  protection 
of  bear,  129. 

McNaney,  James,  buffalo  hunter, 
229. 

Memory,  in  bears,  136;  in  birds,  186; 
in  elephant,  109;  in  polar  bear, 
"Silver  King,"  135. 

Men  killed,  by  Alaskan  brown  bears, 
264;  black  bear,  254;  elk,  302;  lions, 
244;  wild  beasts  in  India,  255; 
wolves,  255. 

Mental  capacity,  of  cinnamon  bear, 
216;  horses,  214;  sea-lions,  213. 

"Mental  Life  of  Monkeys  and  Apes," 
81. 

Mental  traits,  of  bears,  128;  of  birds, 
193;  of  elephants,  109,  118. 

Merriam,  Dr.  C.  Hart,  248;  on  griz- 
zly and  brown  bears,  125. 

Methods,  for  study,  1 1 ;  of  attack,  by 
wild  animals,  302. 

Migration,  of  arctic  tern,  174;  of 
birds,  171;  of  bobolink,  173;  of  gold- 
en plover,  172;  of  scarlet  tanager, 

173- 

Milton,  Jefferson,  148. 

Miner,  Jack,  38;  goose  sanctuary,  176. 

Mink,  murderous  disposition,  295. 

Monkeys,  jokes  played  by,  238;  long- 
nosed,  voice,  30;  pkyfulness,  236; 
temperament,  16;  training  savage, 


324 


INDEX 


217;  voices,  32;  with  organ-grind- 
ers, 53,  62. 

Monogamy,  in  chimpanzee,  222. 

Moose,  38,  59;  courage,  250. 

Morals  of  human  race,  219;  of  wild 
animals,  219. 

Motherhood,  law  of  wild  animals  re- 
garding, 227;  period  of,  among  deer, 
250. 

Mother  love,  in  wild  animals,  250. 

Mouse,  white-footed,  intelligence, 
160. 

Muir,  John,  147. 

Mule  deer,  escapes  from  puma,  278; 
female,  murdered  by  mate,  289; 
Max  Sieber's  story  of,  155;  temper- 
ament of,  1 8. 

Murder,  by  mink  and  weasel,  295;  by 
various  birds,  299;  by  wolves,  223; 
of  female  jaguar,  290;  of  female 
mule  deer,  288;  of  female  polar 
bear,  293;  of  polar  bear  cubs,  291; 
rarely  committed  by  reptiles,  299. 

Murre,  183. 

Musk-ox,  courage,  252;  defensive  cir- 
cle, 253;  strategy,  53. 

Muskrat,  round-tailed,  169. 

MusteMdte,  295. 

Mustelines,  temperament,  17. 

Mynahs,  187. 

N 

Naja  tripudians,  195. 
Nasalis  larvatus,  30. 
Nasua,  19. 

"Nature  of  Animals,  The,"  118. 
Neofiber  atteni,  169. 
Ncotoma,  42. 

Neotoma  albigula,  162,  163. 
Nesting  habits  of  rabbit,  58. 
Nests  of  cacique,  64;  oriole,  63;  wasps, 
64,  weaver  birds,  65. 


Camacho,  80;  caste,  208;  compara- 
tive intelligence,  41,  42;  discovery 
and  use  of  lever  by  "Dohong,"  77- 
80;  disposition  in  captivity,  73;  ex- 
periments with,  by  Dr.  R.  M. 
Yerkes,  81;  facial  expression,  83; 
fighting  methods,  272;  jungle  speci- 
mens, 70;  mental  status,  72;  meth- 
ods of  attack,  311 ;  performance  by 
"Rajah,"  75,  76;  performances  in 
public,  75;  play,  236;  temperament, 
*5t  73 '»  temperamental  differences 
between  chimpanzee  and,  71,  72; 
training  possibilities,  74,  75;  voice, 
27,  71,  84. 

Organ-grinders,  monkeys  with,  53,  62. 

Oriole,  Baltimore,  nest  of,  63,  182. 

Osborn,  Prof.  Henry  Fairfield,  160. 

Otter,  playfulness  on  slide,  259. 

"Outdoor  Life"  Magazine,  150. 

Ovisndsoni,  151. 


Pack  rat,  42,  162;  fortress,  164. 

Palmer,  George,  keeper,  313. 

Panel  torn  out  by  bear,  131. 

Parasitic  nesting  habits,  188. 

Parrots,  talking  by,  187. 

Passer  domesticus,  191. 

Pastimes  of  animals  (see  Play). 

Patagonia,  66. 

Patterson,  Col.  J.  H.,  244. 

Peace  promotes  happiness,  222. 

Peccary,  courage,  254. 

Pelicans,  brown,  killed  by  trumpeter 
swans,  284. 

Penguins,  antarctic,  primitive  cour- 
age, 267. 

Pennsylvania,  rabbits  in,  58,  167. 

Penny,  Major  R.,  owner  of  "John 


y     Gorilla,"  15,  84,  93. 


Obedience,  law  of,  228. 

Ochotona  princeps,  166. 

Okapi,  158. 

Opuntia.  fulgida,  164. 

Orang-utan,   article   on,    by    L.    A. 


Performances,  ethics  of,  205;  of  chim- 
panzees, 85,  86;  of  horses,  214;  of 
orang-utans,  75,  76;  of  sea-lions, 
212;  opposition  to,  205;  "trick," 

212. 

Peromyscus  leucopis,  160. 

Pet  bears,  denounced,  126;  deer,  18. 

"Peter,"  chimpanzee,  82;  initiative, 


INDEX 


325 


89;  opinion  of,  by  Dr.  Lightner  Wit- 
mer,  88;  performance  of,  86. 

Philetcerus  socius,  65. 

Phillips,  John  M.,  136,  148,  181. 

Philosophy  of  peace,  222. 

Pika,  Rocky  Mountain,  166. 

Pinacate  Mountain  sheep,  148. 

Play,  of  apes  and  monkeys,  236;  arc- 
tic fox,  241 ;  captive  bears,  234; 
caribou  fawns,  241;  cranes,  240; 
deer  and  bison,  239;  lion,  239; 
mountain  animals,  233;  otter,  239; 
polar  bears,  235;  sea-lions,  239; 
squirrels,  238;  tiger,  239;  wolf,  239; 
young  wild  animals,  dangerous, 
233- 

Plover,  golden,  migration,  173. 

Polar  bear,  fears  firearms,  263;  fear  of 
man,  128;  murder  of  cage- mate  by, 
291;  play,  235;  prominent  traits, 
128;  "Silver  King,"  memory,  135; 
trained  by  William  Hagenbeck, 

211. 

"Polly,"  chimpanzee,  assists  "Do- 
hong"  with  lever,  78;  language  test 
with,  31. 

Poonans,  houseless,  68. 

Potter,  Dr.  Martin  J.,  214. 

Prairie  dog,  168;  burrowing  habits, 
60. 

Predatory  animals,  168. 

Primate  House,  exhibition  of  monkey 
language  in,  33 ;  vocal  performances 
in,  29. 

Primitive  courage,  of  grizzly  bear, 
246;  of  penguins,  267. 

"Proceedings  of  London  Zoological 
Society,"  284. 

Protection,  appreciated  by  bears,  129; 
by  birds,  176;  by  deer,  59;  by  geese, 
176;  by  sheep,  146;  by  various  spe- 
cies, 231,  269. 

"Psychological  Clinic,"  89. 

Puffin,  nest,  182. 

Pugnacity  hi  birds,  191. 

Puma,  attacks  mule  deer,  278; 
scream,  37;  temperament,  17. 

Pump  shotguns,  deadliness,  251. 

Punishments  for  elephants,  259. 


Pycraft,  quoted  on  gardener  bower 

bird,  184. 

Pygmy  elephant,  African,  103,  106. 
Pygmy  hippopotamus,  temperament, 

23- 
Python,  kills  trainer,  302;  wisdom, 

197. 


Quail,  courage,  242;  dulness  of  in- 
stinct in,  180;  foolish  theory  of 
"scattering,"  181;  Gambel's,  181; 
strategy,  262. 

Quarters,  training,  work  in,  208. 

Quinn,  John,  keeper,  289. 


Rabbit,  cotton-tail,  167;  killed  in 
Pennsylvania,  58,  167;  nest  of,  58. 

Rainey,  Paul  J.,  African  pictures  by, 
264. 

"Rajah,"  orang-utan,  74;  perform- 
ance by,  75,  76. 

Rat,  brown,  54. 

Rat,  desert  kangaroo,  165. 

Rat,  pack,  42;  fortress,  164;  trading 
habits,  162;  white-throated,  153. 

Rattlesnake,  196. 

Raven,  talking  by,  187. 

Reptile  House,  invaded  by  elephant, 
120. 

Reptiles,  rareiy  commit  murder,  299. 

Rhinoceros,  alleged  charge,  158;  com- 
parative intelligence,  41;  tempera- 
ment, 23. 

Richards,  Dick,  keeper,  36,  103,  108, 
122,  311. 

Rights  of  wild  animals,  49-53. 

Robin,  183. 

Rock,  Richard  W.,  killed  by  pet  buf- 
falo, 297. 

Rodents,  mental  traits,  160.     „ 

Rogue  elephant,  223;  attacks  train, 
258,  259. 

Romanes,  George  J.,  4. 

Roosevelt,  Colonel  Theodore,  158; 
dauntless  courage,  242 ;  on  charge  of 
rhinoceros,  263. 

Ross,  A.  E.,  123. 


326 


INDEX 


"Royal  Natural  History,"  65. 
Ruffed  grouse,  tameness  and  wildness, 

179- 
Ruminants,  mental  traits,  142. 


Sambar  deer,  Indian,  killed  by  tiger, 
279. 

Sambar  deer,  Malay,  temperament, 
18. 

Sanborn,  Elwin  R.,  experiments  with 
zebra,  259;  keeper  saved  by,  141. 

Sanctuaries,  game,  269;  in  Pennsyl- 
vania, 59;  recognition  of,  by  birds, 
176,  wild  goose,  176;  wild  species 
benefited  by,  231. 

Sanderson,  G.  P.,  on  elephants,  101, 
114,  283. 

Sandpipers,  flight,  229. 

Sanity,  definition,  8. 

Saras  cranes,  dance  of,  240. 

Schlosser,  Fred,  keeper,  141. 

"Scientific  Monthly,"  69. 

Sciurus  carolinensis,  165. 

Sea-lions,  performances,  213;  play  of 
young,  239. 

Serpents,  fighting  among,  195;  psy- 
chology, 201;  venomous,  194;  wis- 
dom, 194. 

Sex  crimes,  221. 

Shackleton,  Sir  Ernest,  267. 

Sheep,  big-horn,  comparative  intelli- 
gence, 41, 59;  curiosity  in,  149;  leap, 
147;  mental  attitude,  150;  moun- 
tain, attacked  by  eagles,  233;  on 
Pinacate,  148;  philosophy  of  cap- 
tured, 149;  protection  recognized 
by,  146;  Rocky  Mountain  big  horn, 
146;  unafraid  of  man,  148. 

Sheep-killing  dog,  223. 

Sherborn,  C.  Davies,  284. 

Sieber,  Max,  155. 

Sign  language,  in  elephant  herd,  229; 
in  herds,  229. 

"Silver  King,"  memory  of  capture, 
135- 

Slaughter  of  wild  animals  by  whalers, 
267. 

Sloth  bear,  courage,  255;  tempera- 
ment, 17. 


Smith,  Charles  L.,  55. 

Snake,  charmers,  of  India,  201; 
gopher,  197;  hog-nosed,  200;  hoop 
snake  fable,  200;  removing  epi- 
dermis from,  197. 

Snakes,  "charming"  birds,  199;  do 
not  swallow  young,  200;  feign 
death,  200;  peaceful  toward  each 
other,  197. 

Sociable  weaver  bird,  65. 

"Soko,"  chimpanzee,  resentfulness  of, 
72. 

Sonoran  Desert,  163. 

Soul  in  man  and  animals,  314. 

Spider,  trap-door,  46. 

Squirrels,  barking  habits  of,  239;  gray, 
165;  play,  238;  red,  38,  169. 

Stage  performances,  52. 

Starling,  glossy,  187. 

Stefansson,  Vilhjalmur,  55;  observes 
wild  animal  play,  241. 

Sterna  paradisaa,  174. 

Strategy,  of  musk-ox  in  defense,  253; 
of  quail,  262. 

Student,  advice  to,  5. 

Study,  animal,  methods  of,  n;  of 
birds,  materials  for,  191. 

"Stupidity,  Adventures  in,"  69. 

"Sultan,"  serenity  of,  266. 

Sun  bear,  Malay,  temperament,  17, 
128. 

"Susie,"  chimpanzee,  82. 

"Suzette,"  chimpanzee,  failure  in  ma- 
ternal instinct,  90;  marriage  with 
"Boma,"  90;  performances  of,  85. 

Swallow,  182. 

Swordfish,  fighting  reputation  of,  300; 
fight  with  whale,  284. 


Talking  by  birds,  186,  187. 

Taming  a  savage  chimpanzee,  215. 

Tanager,  scarlet,  173. 

Temperament,  classification  of,  14; 
combative,  19;  in  animals,  14,  16; 
nervous,  19;  of  apes,  monkeys,  15; 
bears,  17;  birds,  178,  193;  carni- 
vores, 16;  deer,  17,  18;  elephant,  22; 
fox,  17;  giraffe,  24;  hippopotamus, 


INDEX 


327 


22;  leopard,  16;  lynx,  17;  rhinoc- 
eros, 22;  ruffed  grouse,  179;  tiger, 
16;  walrus,  20-22;  wolf,  17. 

Tennan,  L.  M.,  69. 

Tennant,  Sir  Emerson,  on  elephants, 
101,  109. 

Tern,  arctic,  174. 

Theobald,  A.  G.  R.,  71. 

Thought,  definition,  8. 

Thrasher,  crissal,  183. 

Thuman,  Walter,  keeper,  103,  107, 
120;  attack  on,  by  "Gunda,"  310. 

Tiger,  comparative  intelligence,  41; 
fighting  between,  277;  man-eating 
power,  304;  playfulness  of  young, 
239;  shot  by  author,  304;  tempera- 
ment, 16;  unafraid  of  unarmed 
men,  269, 

Toad,  common  sense  in,  203. 

"Tommy  the  Terror,"  black  bear, 
punished  by  cinnamon  bear,  134, 

135- 

Tortoise,  elephant,  voice  of,  39. 

Trained  apes,  85;  elephants,  108,  207; 
horses,  213;  polar  bears,  210;  sea- 
lions,  213. 

Trainer,  killed  by  chimpanzee,  302; 
killed  by  python,  302. 

Training,  animals,  204;  chimpanzees, 
85;  for  circus  and  stage,  208;  im- 
possible to  diseased  minds,  210;  in 
zoological  parks,  206;  savage  mon- 
key, 217. 

Trap-door  spider,  46. 

Trap  for  grizzly  bear,  56. 

Turkey,  brush,  mound  of,  182. 

Tyrannosaurus  rex,  160. 

U 
Union,  strength  in,  227. 

V 

Veddahs,  68. 

Vengeance  of  bear,  134;  of  elephant, 

123. 

Videra  serena,  188. 
Vireo,  nest,  182. 
Virginia  deer,  156. 
Voices,  of  alligator,  39;  baboon,  29; 


bears,  33,  34;  birds,  37,  38;  bison, 
American,  36;  chickens,  26;  chim- 
panzee, 28,  31,  84;  elephants,  35; 
gibbon,  29;  gorilla,  29;  howler  mon- 
key, 30;  langur  monkeys,  32;  mon- 
keys, baboons  and  lemurs,  32 ;  nose 
monkey,  30;  orang-utan,  27;  puma, 
37;  tortoise,  elephant,  39. 

W 

Walrus,  traits  and  temper,  20-22. 

War,  end  of,  iridescent  dream,  221; 
inter-tribal,  220. 

Wasps  protect  caciques,  177. 

Weasel  murders  geese,  295. 

Weaver  birds,  nests,  65. 

Wedge-tailed  eagle,  good  sense,  188. 

Whalers,  fight  with  swordfish,  284; 
slaughter  of  wild  life  by,  267. 

White-footed  mouse,  intelligence  of, 
160. 

White- tailed  deer,  58,  156;  compara- 
tive intelligence,  41;  temperament, 
18. 

White-throated  pack  rat,  163. 

Wild  boar,  courage,  253. 

Wilson,  T.,  killed  by  bear,  254. 

Wisdom  of  serpents,  194. 

Witmer,  Dr.  Lightner,  88. 

Witnesses,  relative  value  of,  7. 

Wolf,  gray,  afraid  in  civilization,  269 ; 
afraid  of  musk-ox,  269;  compara- 
tive intelligence  41;  courage,  255; 
degenerate  and  unmoral,  223,  283; 
temperament,  17. 

Wolverine,  comparative  intelligence 
41;  cunning  55,  223;  defiles  surplus 
food,  223. 

Wolves,  young,  playfulness  of,  239. 

Women,  effect  of  monotony  on,  232. 

Woodpecker,  38,  183. 

Woodruff,  William,  fights  bull  elk, 
248. 

Wormwood,  Mr.,  animal  trainer,  217. 

Wren,  cactus,  183. 

Wrestling  by  bears,  235;  by  "Chris- 
tian," 216. 

Wright,  W.  H.,  56. 


328 


INDEX 


Yerkes,  Dr.  Robert  M.,  13,  119;  ex- 
periments with  monkeys  and  orang- 
utans, 8l. 

Z 

Zalophtts,  under  training,  212. 

Zebra,  courage  of,  259;  terrifying  ex- 
periment with,  259. 

Zoological  Park,  New  York;  beaver 
house,  169;  birds,  188-191;  chim- 
panzees born,  90,  91;  elephant  at- 
tacks keeper,  310;  escape  of  bears, 


124;  fallow  deer  return  to,  176; 
fighting  between  cow  elk,  282;  fight 
of  baboons,  243;  grizzly  bear  cub, 
245;  Heads  and  Horns  Collection, 
221;  laughing  gull  breeding,  251; 
murder  by  buffalo  bull,  296;  murder 
of  deer,  288;  murder  of  jaguar,  290; 
murder  of  polar  bear,  293 ;  no  keep- 
ers killed,  302;  orang-utans,  73; 
play  of  cranes,  240;  rescue  of  bear 
cub  in  Nursery  Den,  34;  savage 
wild  boar,  253;  tame  squirrels,  165; 
rabbits,  168;  tiger  fight,  277;  weav- 
er birds,  65;  wild  ducks  visit,  176. 


By       W.       T.       HORNADAY 


The 

Minds  and  Manners 
of  Wild  Animals 

Illustrated 

This,  the  most  recent  book  by  the  prominent  American  naturalist, 
is  the  result  of  fifteen  years  of  observation  in  the  wilds  and  twenty-five 
years  as  the  curator  of  the  New  York  Zoological  Park,  the  world's 
greatest  collection  of  wild  animals  in  captivity.  "The  wild  animal 
must  think  or  die,"  declares  the  author. 

"His  book  is  full  of  authentic  and  absorbing  stories,  stories  of  mother- 
hood, of  defeated  impulses,  of  astonishing  adaptability,  of  wonderful 
patience  under  difficulties,  of  crime  and  of  self-sacrifice — stories  of 
which  it  may  be  said  that,  indeed,  they  almost  seem  to  reveal  to  us  the 
main  sources  of  all  our  art  and  literature." 

— THOMAS  L.  MASSON  in  the  New  York  Times. 

"One  of  the  most  entertaining  and  thoroughly  enjoyable  books  on 
natural  history  which  has  appeared  in  a  long  time." 

— New  York  Tribune. 

"More  interesting  than  most  novels." — New  York  Globe. 

"Perhaps  never  before  has  a  naturalist  of  such  distinguished  rank 
compiled  in  a  systematic  and  logical  relation  such  a  mass  of  informa- 
tion as  this  enthralling  and  rarely  valuable  book  holds." 

— Boston  Transcript. 


By     W.      T.      HORNADAY 

Tenth  Printing 

The  American 
Natural  History 

A  Foundation  of  Useful  Knowledge  of  the  Higher 
Animals  of  North  America 

In  the  large  one-volume  edition,  profusely  illustrated 

Published  also  in  the  Fireside  Edition,  in  four  crown  oc- 
tavo volumes,  with  16  full-page  illustrations  in  color,  67 
full-page  illustrations  from  original  drawings  and  photo- 
graphs, and  nearly  300  text  illustrations,  and  with  numer- 
ous charts  and  maps. 

In  the  Fireside  Edition  (1914)  Dr.  Hornaday  has  em- 
bodied all  the  scientific  facts  that  have  been  accumulated 
by  specialists  since  the  book  first  appeared  in  1904,  and  has 
taken  fully  into  account  the  recent  changes  in  conditions 
affecting  the  wild  life  of  North  America. 

AUTHORITATIVE  ENDORSEMENTS 

"A  great  natural  history.  ...  An  ideal  animal  book.  .  .  .  Com- 
mon sense  is  the  author's  marked  characteristic.  Nothing  healthier 
can  be  imagined  for  those  who  have  been  wading  through  the  artistic, 
sentimental  slop  that  passes  for  Natural  History." — New  York  Sun. 

"Mr.  Hornaday  is  a  practical  man  and  he  has  written  a  practical 
book.  .  .  .  The  descriptions  are  clear  and  avoid  overtechnicality, 
while  they  are  accompanied  by  readable  accounts  of  animal  traits  and 
incidents  of  wild  life.  It  is  refreshing  to  have  a  book  that  is  thoroughly 
dependable  as  regards  fact  and  scientific  in  spirit,  yet  written  with 
liveliness  and  freshness  of  manner." — The  Outlook. 


By     W.      T.      HORNADAY 

fourth  Printing 

Camp -Fires  on 
Desert  and  Lava 

With  many  illustrations,  eight  of  them  in  colors,  from  photographs  taken 
by  DR.  DANIEL  TREMBLY  MACDOUGAL,  MR.  JOHN  M.  PHILLIPS,  and 
the  AUTHOR,  and  two  new  and  original  maps  by  MR.  GODFREY  SYKES, 
Geographer  of  the  Expedition.  8vo 

No  book  on  any  desert  region  ever  was  more  fascinating 
than  this  beautiful  volume.  The  wonders  of  the  Sonoran 
Desert  and  volcanic  Pinacate  are  portrayed  with  great 
literary  skill  and  wealth  of  fine  illustrations.  It  describes 
the  finest  desert  trip  ever  put  into  a  book,  and  the  humor 
of  it  is  delightful. 

"Whether  it  is  read  as  a  rattling  story  of  adventure  or  for  the  scien- 
tific value  of  the  exploring  party's  observation,  it  will  richly  repay  the 

reader."— Pittsburgh  Gazette. 

"Alike  to  the  botanist  and  the  biologist,  these  researches  will  be 
found  of  the  very  greatest  value;  but  the  book  may  be  no  less  confidently 
commended  to  the  general  reader.  For  it  is  a  record  of  heroic  enter- 
prises, of  privations  cheerfully^  undergone  and  of  difficulties  success- 
fully surmounted." — London  Academy. 


Thirteenth  Printing 

Taxidermy  and 
Zoological  Collecting 

A  Complete  Handbook  for  the  Amateur  Taxidermist,  Collector, 
Osteologist,  Museum  Builder,  Sportsman,  and  Traveller 

With  Chapters  on  Collecting  and  Preserving  Insects 

By  W.  J.  HOLLAND,  Ph.D.,  D.D. 

With  24  full-page  illustrations  and  104  text  illustrations 

One  volume.     8vo 


By      W.       T.       HORNADAY 

Tenth  Printing 

Two  Years  in  the 
Jungle 

The  Experiences  of  a  Hunter-Naturalist  in  India, 
Ceylon,  the  Malay  Peninsula,  and  Borneo 

With  maps  and  illustrations.   8vo 

"A  book  which  will  be  thoroughly  enjoyed  from  cover  to  cover." 

— Boston  Transcript. 

"  It  is  an  interesting  narrative  of  travel,  sport,  and  adventure  over  a 
very  wide  area.  There  is  indeed  no  dull  writing  in  it  and  it  is  a  record 
of  a  really  astonishing  amount  of  very  hard  work,  performed  often  un- 
der serious  difficulties,  with  the  most  cheerful  spirit  in  the  world." 

— New  York  Tribune. 

Eighth  Printing 

Camp  Fires  in  the 
Canadian  Rockies 

Profusely  illustrated  from  photographs  by 
JOHN  M.  PHILLIPS.  8vo 

"There  were  adventures  with  grizzlies,  a  great  mountain  sheep  hunt, 
wonderful  trout  fishing,  and  the  grandest  of  scenery  to  fill  the  trip 
with  unalloyed  delight  and  give  zest  to  every  page  of  the  book.  Mr. 
Hornaday  is  in  very  close  sympathy  with  nature,  abounds  in  humor, 
writes  well,  and,  best  of  all,  he  abhors  the  ruthless  destruction  of  ani- 
mal life."—  The  New  York  Times. 


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