Dumb but Delightful Friends
The Minds of Animals. By J. Arthur Thomson. (Newnes.
Is a horse the most intelligent mammal below the level of the apes ? We question this statement of Professor Thomson's, and we are puzzled over his observation that his friend's fox- terrier does not laugh, but giggles hysterically. These are small points, and had he written nothing between these covers but the chapter on singing mice (instead of forty charming essays) we would still say that a florin was a little price for so much quiet humour and real knowledge. In short, this is a delightful wee book—only surpassed among living writers, if it be not invidious to say so, by the works of Miss Pitt.
In Scotland the author has lived in a house with a singing mouse. It was wide awake and held its snout high like a dog baying the moon, so the noise was "not of the nature of a sublimated snore. It is not a male's serenade, for it occurs in. both sexes ; moreover, it is an individual peculiarity, present only in a small proportion of the total population of mice." There are well-authenticated instances, we are told, of community singing among mice. "The effect of the chorus is said to be very funny "—and we can well believe it. Other vagaries of animal behaviour include a pigeon which coos softly to a ginger-beer bottle, ewes that steal their neighbour's lamb, with the result that their own dies ; and the occasional killing of the young by the mother. On this latter crime we are in agreement with Miss Pitt, who says that, sometimes at least, a mother kills her young because she wants to make them safe. We see no reason to doubt this assumption as Professor Thomson does ; the writer once owned a bull- dog who ate her valuable litter in the Terai jungle when alarmed by the roar of a roaming tiger.
The intense cleanliness of animals and their fastidiousness in regard to food are known to all animal-lovers. Professor Thomson might have mentioned the well-known instance of mules, who will not touch water that horses would swallow greedily. In fact, if a mule will drink, it is safe to assume that the water is perfectly clean and good. Gulls sometimes wash their fish before swallowing them. An elephant subjects its hay to discriminating criticism. An eagle cleans its talons after a meal. The jerboa spends half the night at its toilet. The pelican preens itself with deliberate dignity. A host of such instances could be adduced, but there is, of course, a darker side to the picture, to which the author draws our attention. The hoopoe is filthy, and solan geese arc not nice about the way they store their fish.
Do animals talk ? The parrot imitates sounds, and in this respect it is far ahead of the chimpanzee ; but Mr. Thomson does not think that it can make a sentence expressive of its own judgment. We are inclined to doubt this, having known parrots use words for particular persons and reserve such
words for those persons and them alone, which would appear to be the stammering of a definite individuality. All attempts to teach chimpanzees a language have failed ; but their -vocalizations have been recorded in four principal groups, such as gak, a food word, gho, in greeting a friend, ky-ah in distress, and who. ah when dinner was announced.
Of the minds of fish, courtship and mating, and of the behaviour of sea anemones, we have not space to write. We Can only allude briefly to the remarkable chapter dealing ivith "the unfulfilled promise of youth," among the animals. is' It is a very suggestive fact that when a doniestieated animal is granted a .conaiderabla share of responsibility, especially in ciroperation with man, it retains a notable degree of responsibility." Arguing from this, the author suggests that we shelter and restrict children too much, and give them too few responsibilities, or that the responsibilities we do give them are too artificial, such as learning lessons. "The engaging otter is a type Which eugenitts should make their totem. It remains young till it dies, versatile, resourceful and full of the joy of The moral is nOt far to seek : indeed, the book is packed with morals, very amusingly pointed.
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