ANIMALS AND MORALITY 



beings, we do see ; affection of parents for their 

 helpless young which may put to shame some 

 human beings ; comradeship in winter months and 

 at other times of year. But, not even setting aside 

 such associations as that of the hive bee, what proof 

 is there of disinterested, humane action, of moral 

 intelligence, among wild creatures ? Gordon Gum- 

 ming tells about the rage of an elephant, whose 

 " friend " he had shot, but there is no proof that the 

 motives were those of what we term friendship. I 

 mention elephants, because they are commonly 

 quoted as possessing the highest type of intelligence 

 in the brute creation though Baker greatly disputed 

 this view. 



I believe that the wild English animals which I 

 watch are, taking the human view and standard, 

 simply a moral. The line of cleavage between man 

 and the lower animals in this matter seems to be 

 absolute. As to " kindness " among animals, apart 

 from sexual or parental relation, it would be 

 extremely interesting to have a record of authentic 

 cases. Personally, I have never seen any incident 

 answering to what we call "kindness" in human 

 relations, though one or two cases of the kind have 

 been mentioned to me. Knapp clearly believed in 

 animal kindnesses or humanity, and gave one 

 delightful account of bird help. He noticed one 

 summer two song thrushes frequenting the shrubs 

 on the green in his garden. From the slenderness 

 of their forms, and the freshness of their plumage, he 

 believed these were birds of the preceding summer. 



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