AS THE BIOLOGIST SEES IT 



and wound me. But the other tarantula, 

 of the same kind and found in the same 

 field, would let me fondle him and would 

 walk in friendly fashion up my bare arm 

 without ever a thought of hurting me. 

 He was a sweetly dispositioned tarantula. 

 You see I have used terms in describ 

 ing the behavior and character of these 

 spiders that we generally reserve for ac 

 counts of human behavior and charac 

 ter. And if you say that I should not 

 attribute character or disposition to them 

 but should limit myself to describing their 

 manner of behavior, because we do not 

 know that their behavior was controlled 

 by their disposition chemical or physical 

 stimuli may have controlled it then I 

 reply that I can quite as easily and much 

 more confidently describe the similarly 

 contrasting behavior of two human in 

 dividuals in terms that we usually limit 

 ourselves to in describing animal be 

 havior. The difference is, we have had 

 so much experience with human individ 

 uals, that is, have made so many ob- 

 119 



