Jones: Sex Ratio of Cats 



239 



is relatively small. Since this is true, 

 the probability is that in the majority 

 of cases the sires were non-white. It 

 therefore becomes likely that in some 

 white female cats at least a lethal ac- 

 tion of some sort is operative when the 



factor for white is present even in the 

 simplex condition. 



The writer wishes to express her 

 indebtedness to Dr. C. C. Little under 

 whose direction the work was under- 

 taken and carried out, for his sugges- 

 tions in the interpretation of the data. 



The Manners and Morals of Wild Animals 



The Minds and Manners of Wild 

 Animals. By William Hornaday, 

 Director of the New York Zoological 

 Park. Pp. 200. $3.00. Charles 

 Scribners and Sons, New York. 

 1922. 



William Hornaday, Director of the 

 New York Zoological Park, writes of 

 the manners and morals of wild ani- 

 mals with the authority bred by long 

 and familiar acquaintance with his 

 subject, and familiarity, in his case, far 

 from breeding contempt, has engen- 

 dered sincere admiration. "Some ani- 

 mals," he says, "have more intelligence 

 than some men and some have better 

 morals." To deny the thinking power 

 of animals "in the face of the facts is 

 to deny the evidence of one's senses." 

 "The wild animal must think or die" 

 is his contention upheld by many con- 

 vincing records. 



Wild animals, like men, says Mr. 

 Hornaday, vary individually in ability, 

 temperament, and morals. "The per- 

 sistence of the mental and moral par- 

 allel between men and wild animals is a 

 source of constant surprise." 



The chimpanzee stands at the head 

 of a list compiled to show the compara- 

 tive intelligence of certain conspicuous 

 wild animals. "The high class dog is 

 the animal that mentally is in closest 

 touch with the human mind, the feel- 

 ings and impulses of man, and it is the 

 only one that can read a man's feelings 

 from his eye and facial expression." 



The power of speech which is gener- 

 ally considered to be an attribute 

 trenchantly dividing man from the 

 so-called "lower animals," is, according 

 to Mr. Hornaday, merely the result of 

 man's attainment of a position in which 

 life is not dependent upon caution. 



Wild animals are silent or have only a 

 few simple vocal expressions, because 

 silence is the price of life. Only the 

 silent species have survived the age- 

 long struggle for existence. Wild 

 jungle fowl, the ancestors of our domes- 

 tic chicken, move silently through 

 silent forests where any sound might 

 betray their presence to a score of pa- 

 tiently waiting, tirelessly watching, 

 chronically hungry enemies, but our 

 barnyard fowl, strutting and cackling 

 secure in the protection of man, have 

 developed a highly useful vocabulary of 

 resonant language calls and cries which 

 are quite intelligible to the attentive 

 human listener. The absence of vocal 

 language in wild animals is largely 

 compensated by a remarkable develop- 

 ment of sign language which, as is 

 well known, is also the medium of com- 

 munication among many savage tribes 

 of the human race. Spoken words are 

 not the only indices of real mental 

 processes. 



Mr. Hornaday describes in detail 

 the mental and moral traits of apes, 

 bears, elephants, ruminants, rodents, 

 serpents, spiders, etc. and gives numer- 

 ous anecdotes illustrative of their 

 abilities, virtues and failings, with 

 occasional (sometimes somewhat caus- 

 tic) commentaries on parallel phases of 

 human civilization. 



A chapter on the rights of wild ani- 

 mals speaks in no uncertain terms of 

 the duties of man with respect to his 

 fellow-citizens of the world, asserting 

 that the killing of harmless animals 

 solely for sport and without utilizing 

 them when killed is murder. 



The liberal use of side-heads detracts 

 from the literary character of the book, 

 although it may be justified by the 



