198 SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR 
or “rat.” Mr. R. L. Garner, in a work * which anfortunately 
contains much hasty and immature generalization, distinguished 
nine sounds made by capuchins. But none of these, so far as 
can be gathered from the data given, is necessarily indicative 
of a particular object. All of them may be emotional ex- 
pressions of satisfaction, discontent, alarm, apprehension, and 
so forth. In any case, there is no evidence for that inten- 
tional employment of sounds, to the realized end of inter- 
communication, which would involve the exercise of an 
incipient rational faculty. Such powers of intercommuni- 
cation as animals possess are based on direct association, 
and refer to the here and the now. A dog may be able to 
suggest to his companion the fact that he has descried a 
worriable cat; but can a dog tell his neighbour of the 
delightful worry he enjoyed the day before yesterday in the 
garden where the man with the biscuit-tin lives? Probably 
not, bark he never so expressively. 
Although some anecdotes are commonly interpreted as 
affording evidence of descriptive intercommunication among 
animals, we need the decisive results of experiment before this 
view can be unreservedly accepted. Sir John Lubbock, now 
Lord Avebury, made careful experiments with ants, and dis- 
cusses the question with his customary lucidity and impar- 
tiality. ‘‘ Much of what has been said,” he writes, ‘as to the 
powers of communication possessed by bees and ants depends 
on the fact that if one of them in the course of her rambles 
has discovered a supply of food, a number of others soon find 
their way to the store. This, however, does not necessarily 
imply any power of describing localities. If the ants merely 
follow a more fortunate companion, or if they hunt her by 
scent, the matter is comparatively simple ; if, on the contrary, 
the others have the route described to them, the case becomes 
very different.” Experiments were therefore made to decide 
the question. For example, when an ant returned from the 
discovered store of food to the nest, and then emerged with a 
* «The Speech of Monkeys.” 
+ “Scientific Lectures,” pp. 112, 118. 
