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 "Who-ool Who-ool Who-ool" 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 



