ANIMAL COMMUNICATION 



tures, which it follows by scent or sight. It can 

 neither see nor smell crabs in the deep water, where 

 crabs are usually found. How should it know that 

 there are such things as crabs ? How should it know 

 that they can be taken with bait and line or by fish 

 ing for them ? When and how did it get this experi 

 ence ? This knowledge belongs to man alone. It 

 comes through a process of reasoning that he alone 

 is capable of. Man alone of land animals sets traps 

 and fishes. There is a fish called the angler (Lophius 

 piscatorius), which, it is said on doubtful authority, 

 by means of some sort of appendages on its head 

 angles for small fish; but no competent observer 

 has reported any land animal doing so. Again, 

 would a crab lay hold of a mass of fur like a fox s 

 tail ? even if the tail could be thrust deep enough 

 into the water, which is impossible. Crabs, when 

 not caught with hand-nets, are usually taken in 

 water eight or ten feet deep. They are baited and 

 caught with a piece of meat tied to a string, but 

 cannot be lifted to the surface till they are eating 

 the meat, and then a dip-net is required to secure 

 them. The story, on the whole, is one of the most 

 preposterous that ever gained credence in natural 

 history. 



Good observers are probably about as rare as 



good poets. Accurate seeing, an eye that takes in 



the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, how 



rare indeed it is ! So few persons know or can tell 



107 



