368 ORGANIC GROWTH sec. 



note is also known to occur in the chaffinch (Fringilla 

 ccelebs) and in the nightingale (Luscinia Philomela). 



I have made the latter remarks chiefly with the object of 

 recommending the study of a subject, which although it 

 ought to supply science with some remarkable facts, has 

 hitherto received very little attention from zoologists. 



G. Jager ^ says with reference to this subject, " By means 

 of looks, gestures, and sounds animals speak a very plain 

 language, and it requires only a somewhat persevering 

 attention to learn this language. . . . Tliis sound and 

 gesture - language reveals to us completely the feelings of 

 animals, and their desires sufficiently disclose to us their 

 intellectual powers. The sound - language which most 

 mammals and birds, and some reptiles, fishes, and insects 

 possess, consists of cries expressing feelings, like the utter- 

 ances of a child in its earliest years ; these cries are more or 

 less prolonged tones, i.e. vowels, or noises, i.e. consonants, 

 which are uttered once or several times in succession, while 

 human words are combinations of tones and noises arranged 

 according to definite laws, articulate. The interjections of 

 our word-language are the most closely related to the cries of 

 sensation of animals, for the former are in fact nothing but 

 cries of sensation scattered among our vocabulary of words. 

 The cries of animals, however, have not merely the value of 

 interjections, they are something more. Thus the animal 

 can express several sensations by modification of its 

 voice, by modulation of its tones. Thereby animals are 

 able to communicate their sensations and condition even 

 during the night when they cannot see each other's 

 gestures." 



On the language of monkeys I find some remarks by J. von 

 Fischer,^ who quotes the above passage from Jager. He says 



^ Zoologischer Garten, Bd. iii. p. 268, 1861. 

 ^ Zoologischer Garten, Bd. xxiv. p. 294, et seq. 1883. 



