26 THE MINDS AND MANNERS 



doubt. The only question is of the methods and the extent 

 of voice used. Birds and men give expression to their pleasure 

 or joy by singing. 



In the jungle and the heavily wooded wilderness, one hears 

 really little of vocal wild-animal language. Through countless 

 generations the noisiest animals have been the first ones to be 

 sought out and killed by their enemies, and only the more 

 silent species have survived. All the higher animals, as we 

 call the higher vertebrates, have the ability to exchange 

 thoughts and convey ideas; and that is language. 



At the threshold of this subject we are met by two interest- 

 ing facts. Excepting the song-birds, the wild creatures of 

 today have learned through instinct and accumulated ex- 

 perience that silence promotes peace and long life. The bull 

 moose who bawls through a mile of forest, and the bull elk 

 who bugles not wisely but too well, soon find their heads 

 hanging in some sportsman's dining-room, while the silent 

 Virginia deer, like the brook, goes on forever. 



Association with man through countless generations has 

 taught domestic animals not only the fact of their safety when 

 giving voice, but also that very often there is great virtue in 

 a vigorous outcry. With an insistent staccato neigh, the 

 hungry horse jars the dull brain of its laggard master, and 

 prompts him to "feed and water the stock." But how different 

 is the cry of a lost horse, which calls for rescue. It cannot be 

 imitated in printed words; but every plainsman knows the 

 shrill and prolonged trumpet-call of distress that can be heard 

 a mile or more, understandingly. 



And think of the vocabulary of the domestic chicken! 

 Years of life in fancied security have developed a highly useful 

 vocabulary of language calls and cries. The most important, 

 and the best known, are the following: 



"Beware the hawk !" "Coor ! Coor !" 

 "Murder! Help!" "Kee-owk! Kee-owk! Kee-owk!" 

 "Come on" "Cluck ! Cluck ! Cluck !" 

 "Food here ! Food !" "Cook-cook-cook-cook !" 

 Announcement, or alarm "Cut-cut-cut-da/t-cut !" 



