DO ANIMALS TALK? 223 



' mew ' in some form of conversation with the tigress ; 

 and the puma when domesticated has a considerable 

 range of notes to ask for food, water, and society, or 

 to return thanks ; the latter being, as in the case of the 

 cat and tiger, a kind of purr. 



'Statement' in animal speech is mainly confined to 

 indications that the creature has made a discovery, good 

 or bad. For the former the cock has, perhaps, the 

 most distinct set of sounds; they are quite unlike any 

 other note he uses, and are confined to the assertion 

 that he has found something good to eat. Cock 

 pigeons do the same, and we imagine that geese have 

 an equivalent sound. Dogs have two forms of sound 

 to state a discovery, elephants only one. The dog 

 barks loud and sharply over something new, or merely 

 surprising. We have seen a dog barking in this way 

 when a couple of geographical globes were placed in a 

 window -objects he had never seen and wished to call 

 attention to. But a painful discovery, such as that of a 

 dead body, or a dangerously wounded man, is some- 

 times communicated by the dog howling, which marks 

 a different form of speech. A practical acquaintance 

 with shore shooting and the men who have learnt to 

 imitate the notes of shore birds discloses some curious 

 facts as to the minute differences between the ' talk ' of 

 different species. The greater number have a particular 

 note which signifies * Come '; and this note seems 



