AFFECTIONS AND JEALOUSIES OF LIZARDS. 399 



that they should find in our cajolery a kind of recollection 

 of motherly tenderness. They play together, embrace one an- 

 other, and press against one another. The man who plays with 

 them is like a companion of a little more respectable species, and 

 that is all. In menageries, monkeys, bears, lions, tigers, and 

 hyenas indulge in caresses to the point that some animals seek 

 them and provoke them. But lizards, with their scaly skin, un- 

 accustomed to embracing, feeling, and licking, hatched in the 

 sun ! My Pedro therefore presented a deviation of the feeling of 

 jealousy. We not rarely see parrots that like to be stroked on the 

 neck or the head. I once accustomed a vulture in the zoological 

 garden of Ghent to pass his head out between the bars of his cage 

 in order to have it held and caressed. My friend Prof. Gilki- 

 net tamed a wild rabbit till it became as familiar as a dog, and 

 learned to like the hand that stroked it. All these creatures have 

 known the pleasures of the nest and of maternal contact. But 

 again, a lizard ? I suppose that when cuddled between my hand- 

 kerchief and my hand, it felt in that kind of moist and easy cav- 

 ity a renewal of the pleasure of the days when it was free, and 

 had a secure refuge in the shelter of the leaves against a burning 

 sun. On the other hand, when another lizard comes, it displays 

 envy or anger as if it were threatened with dislodgment. Is it 

 that ? It alone can tell what is passing in its darkened psychic 

 sensibility, for man can not penetrate the animal mind. But could 

 he penetrate the human soul if he had not language ; can he 

 penetrate the soul of one whose language he is not acquainted 

 with ? If we met a savage in the midst of a virgin forest, should 

 we be better able to divine his intentions than we should those of 

 an alligator ? 



Does it not result from these observations that, aside from the 

 faculty of abstract, artificial, and conventional language, which 

 seems up to this time to be the exclusive appanage of man, there 

 is no clearly marked difference in general feelings between man 

 and his lower brethren ? Or rather, as I have ventured to say on 

 another occasion, I ask if there may not appear in each animal 

 species from time to time scamps, individuals inclined to rapine 

 and murder, like my lizard Ben Youssouf, or simple, uneasy crea- 

 tures like Pedro ? 



Furthermore, these minute observations, which may seem puer- 

 ile in the eyes of many, help to establish the psychological tran- 

 sition from man to animals placed much lower in the zoological 

 scale than lizards. In this aspect, they may be considered an 

 humble contribution in support of transformism. Translated for 

 the Popular Science Montlily from the Revue Scientifique. 







