OF WILD ANIMALS 31 



extent by vocal sounds was hailed as a "discovery"; but 

 unfortunately for science, nothing has been proved beyond 

 the long-known fact that primates of a given species understand 

 the meaning of the few sounds and cries to which their kind 

 give utterance. 



Thus far I have never succeeded in teaching a chimpanzee 

 or orang-utan to say even as much as "Oh" or "Ah." Nothing 

 seems to be further from the mind of an orang than the idea 

 of a new vocal utterance as a means to an end. 



Our Polly was the most affectionate and demonstrative 

 chimpanzee that' I have ever seen, and her reaction to my 

 voice was the best that I have found in our many apes. She 

 knew me well, and when I greeted her in her own language, 

 usually she answered me promptly and vociferously. Often 

 when she had been busy with her physical-culture exercises and 

 Delsartean movements on the horizontal bars or the trapeze 

 in the centre of her big cage, I tested her by quietly joining 

 the crowd of visitors in the centre of the room before her cage, 

 and saying to her: "Polly! Wah! Wah! Wah!" 



Nearly every time she would stop short, give instant 

 attention and joyously respond "Wah! Wah! Wah!", repeating 

 the cry a dozen times while she clambered down to the lower 

 front bars to reach me with her hands. When particularly 

 excited she would cry "WAo-oo! Who-ool WA0-oo!" with great 

 clearness and vehemence, the two syllables pitched four notes 

 apart. This cry was uttered as a joyous greeting, and also 

 at feeding- time, in expectation of food; but, simple as the 

 task seems to be, I really do not know how to translate its 

 meaning into English. In one case it appears to mean "How 

 do you do? " and in the other it seems to stand for "Hurry up!" 



Polly screamed when angry or grieved, just like a naughty 

 child; and her face assumed the extreme of screaming-child 

 expression. She whined plaintively when coaxing, or when 

 only slightly grieved. With these four manifestations her vocal 

 powers seemed to stop short. Many times I opened her 



