36 THE MINDS AND MANNERS 



I have ever heard. It was a regular "Hello" signal-call, 

 entirely different from the "Tal-700-e" blast which once came 

 from a feeding herd and guided us to it. 



But it is only on rare occasions that elephants communi- 

 cate with each other by sound. I once knew a general alarm 

 to be communicated throughout a large herd by the sign 

 language, and a retreat organized and carried out in absolute 

 silence. Their danger signals to each other must have been 

 made with their trunks and their ears; but we saw none of 

 them, because all the animals were concealed from our view 

 except when the two scouts of the herd were hunting for us. 



In captivity an elephant trumpets in protest, or through 

 fear, or through rage; but I am obliged to confess that as yet 

 I cannot positively distinguish one from the other. 



Once in the Zoological Park I heard our troublesome Indian 

 elephant, Alice, roaring continuously as if in pain. It con- 

 tinued at such a rate that I hurried over to the Elephant 

 House to investigate. And there I saw a droll spectacle. 

 Keeper Richards had taken Alice out into her yard for exer- 

 cise and had ordered her to follow him. And there he was 

 disgustedly marching around the yard while Alice marched 

 after him at an interval of ten paces, quite free and untram- 

 meled, but all the while lustily trumpeting and roaring in 

 indignant protest. The only point at which she was hurt was 

 in her feelings. 



Two questions that came into public notice concerning the 

 voices of two important American animals have been perma- 

 nently settled by "the barnyard naturalists" of New York. 



The Voice of the American Bison. In 1907 the state- 

 ment of George Catlin, to the effect that in the fall the bellow- 

 ings of buffalo bulls on the plains resembled the muttering of 

 distant thunder, was denied and severely criticized in a sports- 

 man's magazine. On October 4 of that year, while we were 

 selecting the fifteen bison to be presented to the Government, 

 to found the Wichita National Bison Herd, four of us heard 



