"Humanizing" the Birds 



CAROLINE G. SOULE 



X the first number of I:»ii<i)-L()i<i; the author of 'Bird 



Studies for Children' says: "Most bird stories will 



interest them [children], especially if the birds are 



^—■'^■M^,^,^,-^-^. Jiumanized for them by the teller of the tale." 



''\y,^~_^'-^M^P^/< Humanizing, in this connection, means endowing 



;i^ . jsJ!'*'^'!^,^-." with human characteristics, and is a process much 



;-■ ~ .. ,3- J^^''X in vogue just now among writers of nature-study books 



and papers for the use of children and teachers. 



Let us see if it is worth doing — or even is justifiable. 



Birds possess some characteristics or qualities which are also 

 possessed by human beings, and by other animals. These qualities 

 are not merely "human" then, but are common to many species of 

 creatures. Since birds already have these (jualities, there is no 

 need of endowing them with them. To "humanize" the birds by 

 ascribing to them human (lualities which they do not and cannot 

 possess, is only to misrepresent them, and stories which so humanize 

 them are of no more value, as nature-study or bird-study, than so 

 many fairy-tales. More than this — they are positively harmful 

 because they give, as facts, statements about existing creatures which 

 are not true. This is not bird-study; it is only telling stories which 

 interest the children, and which have no value except in keeping them 

 (juiet. The children are not interested in the real birds, for they 

 are not told about them. They are interested in the stories, invented 

 for this end, about creatures which the story-teller ca/Zs birds but 

 which are only human characteristics draped on bird forms. Very 

 slight changes would be needed to make the same stories fit any 

 humanized animal. The real nature of the bird is left out of these 

 humanized bird stories and the loss is very great, as always when 

 truth is left out. 



To tell of "Mr. and Mrs. Robin" is well enough, for the titles 

 merely mean the male and female. To represent them as talking 

 is well enough, for they certainly communicate with each other and 

 their young, and putting their communications into human speech is 

 merely translating them. But to represent them as uttering highly 

 moral speeches is all wrong, for these are beyond the power of the 

 birds. The moment that the story humanizes them in any such 

 way it becomes of no value, because it is false to nature. 



The humanizing process is lavishly applied to all sorts of 

 creatures, even to plants. 



For instance, in a very popular book occurs the following : — 



(193) 



