VOCAL LANGUAGE. 301 



bling those of a child. Milne Edwards points out that 

 the cry of agony or distress occurs equally in the child and 

 animal. The female jaco monkey cries when tired, just as 

 the child does. The young siamang utters pettish cries and 

 offers resistance while being washed by its mother, just as 

 the human child does (Cassell). Apes have cries and the 

 chimpanzee shouts of pleasure in their amusements. 



Wallace says of a young female orang that unsavoury 

 food caused it 'to scream and to stamp with its feet, just like 

 a child in a passion. It was its usual tactic to scream if it 

 thought itself neglected and wished to attract attention .... 

 gradually ceasing to scream when no notice was taken ; but 

 it immediately began again if it heard anyone's footstep.' 

 Of another orang a male Dr. Yvan tells us that ' his master 

 having taken away from him a mango fruit, he set up a 

 peevish howling, like a vexed child. As this was not suc- 

 cessful, he threw himself flat on his belly, beat the ground 

 with his fist, screamed, wept, and howled. . . . When at 

 last the fruit was given back to him he threw it at his 

 master's head.' 



Of all the varied forms of vocal expression there is none 

 of greater interest to the student of comparative psychology 

 than that of articulate speech the power of speaking or 

 talking possessed by such birds as the parrot. 



That its enunciation of words and phrases picked up by 

 imitation from man, either spontaneously or by means of his 

 efforts at the bird's linguistic education, is both correct and 

 clear there can be no doubt. It is proved by the frequency 

 with which man allows himself to be misled by the talk of 

 the parrot, fancying he is listening to some fellow-man, and 

 by the perhaps even greater frequency with which such 

 animals as the dog and horse, accustomed to obey man's 

 words and sentences of command, commit the error of obey- 

 ing instead the waggish, counterfeit orders of a parrot. Of 

 the Truefitt parrot, and its mimicry or imitation of the 

 manner of and the words and phrases of command used by a 

 volunteer drill sergeant, a captain of volunteers asserted 

 that he had ' never heard a drill sergeant whose articulation 

 was to be compared with that of the parrot.' Nor is this 



