themselves. They are, as a rule, in no- 

 wise trying to charm their mates, and 

 they are not at all desirous of pleasing 

 anyone but themselves. It would be 

 as reasonable to claim that the carpen- 

 ter on the roof is whistling to please 

 his sweetheart or that the lumberman 

 alone with his cattle in the forest trolls 

 forth his jolly song for any amorous 

 reason. There are times when these 

 purposes are the cause of singing, but 

 the fact is that the great majority of 

 the singing and whistling done by 

 men, birds, and beasts sounds far bet- 

 ter to the ones that produce it than to 

 any other. In fact, society itself would 

 be in a far better state if the men and 

 women who sing would only acknowl- 

 edge that they are doing so mainly to 

 please themselves, and they might 

 then be persuaded in part to leave off 

 trying to surprise their hearers at 

 times by singing louder or higher or 

 faster than nature intended they should 

 do. Most people enjoy listening to 

 song, but no one can appreciate the 

 beauties of it so well as the artistic 

 singer who has acquired his talents by 

 assiduous and intelligent discipline. 

 His enjoyment of his own efforts is as 

 much higher than that of his auditors 

 as is the pleasure of the man who sings 

 out of tune above the felicity of his 

 hearers. 



Elephants speak in three ways. 

 Pleasure is evinced by blowing the 

 proboscis in a sharp manner — like the 

 sound of a trumpeter learning. Wants 

 are murmured over in the mouth. 

 Rage roars tremendously low in the 

 throat. While these sounds are not 

 made for the purpose of informing 

 others of states of feeling, yet they 

 do convey to man and beast an idea of 

 what is going on. So the lower ani- 

 mals accidentally, if you please, have a 

 sort of language. It is instinctive and 

 conveys no intelligence not immedi- 

 ately connected with the present state 

 of the speaker or his community. 



Marcgrave says he has frequently 

 seen the meetings held by the Ouarine 

 Monkeys and enjoyed their delibera- 

 tions. "Every day they assemble in 

 the woods to receive instructions. One 

 takes the highest place on the tree 

 and makes a signal with his hand for 



the rest to sit round. As soon as he 

 sees them placed he begins his dis- 

 course in a loud and precipitate voice; 

 the rest preserve a profound silence. 

 When he has done he makes a sign 

 with his hand for the rest to reply. At 

 that instant they raise their voices 

 together, until by another signal silence 

 is enjoined." 



Professor Garner has studied simian 

 speech so carefully that he is able to 

 converse with Monkeys to a limited 

 extent. He says they have words for 

 "food" and "drink," have a spoken sal- 

 utation, and can distinguish numbers 

 up to about three, and have some 

 notion of music. "In" brief, they ap- 

 pear to have at least the raw material 

 out of which are made the most ex- 

 alted attributes of man." 



Aristotle noticed that voices vary 

 with conditions when he gravely an- 

 nounced that the Calf affords the only 

 instance in nature where the voice of 

 the young is deeper and graver than 

 that of its parent. Wild animals fre- 

 quently change their voices on domes- 

 tication. Domestic Dogs and even tame 

 Jackals have learned to bark, which is 

 a noise not proper to any species of 

 the genus, with the possible exception 

 oi the Ca?n^ /atrans oi North America. 

 Columbus discovered that Dogs left 

 by him on an islandwhere therewas no 

 game nor any other occasion for bark- 

 ing lost their voices completely before 

 he visited them on a subsequent voy- 

 age. Some breeds of domestic Pigeons 

 coo in a new and quite peculiar manner 

 not manifested in their wild state. 



The same species of birds living in 

 different localities sometimes have 

 different vocal habits. An excellent 

 observer says an Irish covey of Par- 

 tridges spring without uttering a call, 

 while, on the opposite coast, the Scotch 

 covey accompany their springing with 

 intense shrieks. Bechstein says that 

 from many years of experience he is 

 certain that in the Nightingale a ten- 

 dency to sing in the middle of the 

 night or in the day runs in families 

 and is strictly inherited. 



As the Parrot acquires human lan- 

 guage by association with unfeathered 

 bipeds, so do many voices modify 

 themselves as circumstances alter, and 



202 



