IN THE SHETLANDS 307 
organism reacts in this way to a certain state, which 
may be caused by a variety of incidents, so that no 
special, circumstantially limited meaning can attach, in 
its mind, to the cry. 
I do not say that there are no cries, amongst animals, 
which have a certain definite meaning, and no other. 
Very possibly there are, and one may, perhaps, perceive 
the origin of them ; for if such cries—at first general 
—were, in a large majority of cases, consequent upon 
a particular state of things, such state of things would 
come to be more and more associated with the cry, 
though from this to a definite and purposed signal, 
given by one and received by many, is a very con- 
siderable step. But the fact—if it really is one— 
ought to be better made out than it is. A sportsman 
has only to talk about the leader, a signal, or sentinels, 
in regard to any bird or beast, and no one pauses upon 
it. It is accepted as though it had dropped from 
heaven instead of from the lips of a man whose main 
interest lies in killing animals, who is generally most 
hasty in drawing inferences about them, and whose 
belief in their intelligence pays a compliment to 
his own. 
The minds of some people must be in a strange 
state about animals, I think. They will not allow 
that they have reasoning ‘powers, yet find no difficulty 
in crediting them with all sorts of actions, schemes, 
plans, and arrangements, that seem to demand a quite 
human understanding. Perhaps I, who admit the 
one, make too much difficulty over the other ; but I 
