BIOLOGY OF MAN it6i 



or three instances of sociality among spiders. These and other reasons 

 help us to understand why the list of social animals is not longer. 

 The formation of a society makes certain demands on its members, 

 — above all some degree of self-subordination; and these demands 

 cannot always be met. Successful as social life is, it is on the whole 

 for the elect. 



Perhaps we shall be helped to understand social life in mankind 

 if we linger just a little longer over social activities among animals. 

 How do these manifest themselves ? There may be concerted action 

 or communal enterprise; thus wasps unite against an intruder, 

 wild cattle against the menacing Carnivore, rooks against a hawk. 

 Or the union may be aggressive, as when the wolves in a pack unite 

 against a deer, or weasels against a dog. Again there may be co- 

 operation in food- getting, as when pelicans, wading in a half-circle, 

 close in upon fishes; or combined action in making a shelter or a 

 store, as in the termitary and the bee-hive. 



But the social activities of animals are sometimes quaintly 

 subtle. Thus among some of the slave-keeping ants, the slaves may 

 assist in capturing others like themselves. Many migratory birds 

 fly in wedge-shaped formation, which lessens the physical exertion 

 and devolves the responsibility of guidance on a leader, who can be 

 changed when he or she gets tired. Corporate nesting is illustrated 

 by Republican Birds that make a huge composite erection almost 

 smothering a tree, and there are some social features in the gregarious 

 nesting of rooks. Social activities also include the "wars" of some 

 species of ants, the ploys and plays of others, the drilling manoeuvres 

 of the penguins and their games, the choruses of some joyous birds, 

 and the "community singing" of the Howling Monkeys. 



Another line of social activity is the evolution of means of 

 communication, by sound-signals in particular. The first use of the 

 voice was as a sex-call, and this use remains prominent in many 

 vocal animals, such as the croaking frogs. A second phase in the 

 evolution of the voice is represented by those animals in which the 

 young one calls to its parents — the unhatched crocodile pipes from 

 within the egg-shell — or the parents call to the young ones, as when 

 the partridges utter the danger-cry that makes their offspring squat 

 and lie still. Then the sounds became kin-signals, which sometimes 

 save a difficult situation. Thus an isolated monkey attacked by an 

 eagle may summon its kindred and entirely alter the crisis. Gradu- 

 ally there came to be "words", by which we mean soimds associated 

 with particular provocations, feelings, desires, or even objects. 

 Rooks, dogs, monkeys, and many other brainy creatures have many 

 "words", though they never attain to making a sentence. There is 

 no true language until socially imitated sounds are used to express 

 a judgment, and even chimpanzees, which have a large vocabulary, 

 never do that. Man has a monopoly of language, though many 



